Must Go On
by Dark Tidings
Summary: After a car accident leaves Harry a single father of an infant, he returns to Britain  and the wizarding world , as well as a much-improved Hogwarts.   Somewhat DH-compliant, but veers off prior to the Final Battle.  Not epilogue compliant at all.
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JKR, of course. Just puttering about in her world._

_A baby is God's opinion that the world should go on – Carl Sandburg_

For months afterward, Harry's strongest memory of the hospital was the smell, a cloying array of cleaning fluid scents that brought back unpleasant memories of a childhood spent using the strongest disinfectants to satisfy his aunt's devotion to destroying even the tiniest germ that ventured into her territory. At least the hospital had good reason to stink of disinfectant.

The second strongest memory was the clock, which had an echoing ticking sound that overshadowed even the whispering of the exhausted elderly couple huddled in the uncomfortable surgery waiting room seats. It didn't matter where he sat in the room. The ticking followed him, each tick driving home his fear and grief.

Just when he thought he'd go completely mental from waiting, the door slowly opened and a petite nurse in green scrubs glanced around the room. Dismissing the couple, she focused on him. "Mr. Potter?"

Harry nodded.

"Come with me, please." She stepped aside to let him exit the waiting room ahead of her. "Dr. Foster is waiting to speak to you."

All hope he'd been holding onto fled as they rounded the corner and he saw the familiar kindly features of the obstetrician. Dr. Foster reached out and took one of Harry's hands, holding it between hers.

"I'm so sorry, Harry. We couldn't save her, and it was touch and go even getting the baby delivered. I know you're aware of the seriousness of the baby arriving at 25 weeks." She squeezed his hand gently. "But we've got one of the best neonatal units in the region. We'll be doing everything we can."

He simply felt numb. From experience, he knew the devastating grief was lurking, and it would overtake him probably when he least needed to crumble. It took three tries to find his voice. "Can I see the baby?"

She nodded, and keeping one of his hands in hers, she led him to the NICU, using the walk and elevator ride to quietly detail the devastating reality of having a micro-preemie baby. The part of him that had never quite stopped being a wizard began to wonder if the baby's odds were better if he returned to his own world.

Standing at the incubator, he touched the plastic that protected his newborn son from the world. So little of the baby could be seen, between the tubes and monitors and wrappings, and he ached to be able to hold the single remaining member of his family. He'd listened as carefully as he could as Dr. Foster turned him over to the pediatrician, who began a recitation of facts beyond the overview he'd gotten on the trip over.

It had strengthened the idea that he needed to make a trip to the wizarding hospital, to find out all the options for his son. He was glad he'd settled in an American city that had one. He slipped his hand into the glove of the incubator, moving his hand to let the baby's miniscule fingertips barely touch his smallest finger. Tiny eyelids fluttered.

His eyes met those of the nurse, who gave him an encouraging smile. "Talk to him, Mr. Potter. Even if you can't hold him yet, they often know their parents' voices anyway."

It took four tries for Harry to manage a simple "hello" to the baby. There was no reaction from the baby, but once started, he couldn't stop. The words poured forth, describing the family they'd lost today and how much he would do everything in his power to be the best father he knew how.

When the words finally ceased to come, he slowly slipped his hand out of the incubator and looked to the waiting nurse. "I need to go make start making arrangements," he said, hating that it sounded like he was doing something as simple as planning a move, not a funeral.

She nodded. "There's paperwork they need you to fill out, for the baby, and an emergency contact form. You've got a cell phone, right?"

"Yeah." He patted his pocket almost by instinct to make sure he had the gadget.

"Good. We'll call you the second you're needed." She came around the incubator to place a gentle hand on his arm. "Had you decided on a name?"

Harry took a shuddering breath, closing his eyes and seeing the baby names book and small spiral notebook that had been a near-permanent resident of the living room coffee table since the first positive pregnancy test. "No. But I think that Richard suits."

"A good name for a brave boy." She patted his arm and then moved to take the baby's chart to note the name.

His gaze went back to the baby, managing something that passed for a smile, before going to complete the paperwork the hospital needed, so he could leave and make sure this brave, delicate baby got every possible chance – Muggle and wizarding both.


	2. Chapter 2

_Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JKR, of course. Just puttering about in her world._

_A/N: I'm going to play havoc with any pairing that wasn't established as a marriage prior to the epilogue. As the story's AU prior to the final battle, different folks did – or didn't – make it out. In this world, Snape didn't leave it to random chance that Harry would know he was the final Horcrux, so he wasn't available to get turned into a snake's chewtoy. While deaths may be changed, some living folks do retain damage from the final battle. Even with magic, not everyone comes out whole from a war._

_A bit of a time jump here to get to the meat of the story._

Harry put the last of the shrunken boxes into his traveling bag and did one last walk through the house. Finding nothing aside from some remaining furniture the estate agent he'd hired was going to sell before turning the house over to the new owners, he lifted Richard into the sling on his chest. Shouldering the baby's bag and his own out of ease of habit gained in recent months, he pulled the international portkey out of his pocket and activated it wandlessly.

The sensation was no more pleasant now than it had been the last time he'd used one, more than a decade ago. But it was the safest means of wizarding travel for the baby, and he wasn't crazy enough to try Muggle methods with an infant. At least he'd learned to land safely, although his knees protested a bit when his shoes contacted the ground. He glanced up at Hogwarts' gates and to the castle beyond and took a deep breath. For the first time since the week after the final battle, he was at the first place he'd called home.

The gates swung open to reveal the Headmaster waiting with far more patience than he'd have expected from the man.

"Do you intend to stand out there all day with my namesake, or come inside?"

Harry chuckled. "Considering I'll likely not see the boy once we make it to the steps, maybe I shouldn't."

That earned him a smile from Severus. "True. Although you might make it as far as your quarters if you hurry. I told them you were arriving at dinner instead of now, to let you settle in before they overwhelm you two." He stepped through the gates and gently stroked the sleeping baby's cheek with one long, slender finger. "He's got more weight to him now than he used to."

"I don't think he'll ever have the chubby baby appearance people expect."

They began the walk across the castle grounds. "And his health?"

"Good. We've been remarkably lucky on almost all counts. It helped, getting the mediwitch transferred into the hospital as a Muggle nurse."

Severus nodded, giving Harry a moment to study the man's profile as they walked. His former Professor looked older than his years, more like he'd appear if he were Muggle instead of a wizard. Perhaps it was the grey streaking his hair that truly added to that impression, but he thought the man looked far happier than he had in his younger years.

"You've heard of the changes at Hogwarts over the years, of course, but it'll be different, seeing them face on," the Headmaster explained.

"Considering I'm teaching a subject that didn't quite exist back when I was a student, I'm prepared for surprises." Harry paused to scan the grounds. "I'm glad the gamekeeper's hut was rebuilt, even if Hagrid's not living there anymore. It wouldn't seem like Hogwarts without it and the annual pumpkin patch. Who's gamekeeper currently?"

"Widower named Foster. Hagrid's trained him quite well, although I don't think anyone will ever enter the Forbidden Forest as carefree as Hagrid does."

"How are you surviving the half Weasley staff these days?"

"If you'd asked me ten years ago if I'd be happy in a castle where my staff contained a half dozen Weasleys or their spouses, I'd have thought you'd gone quite mad. I should probably thank you, though, that you gave those infernal twins their startup money. Otherwise they might have taken up teaching, and then I'd have retired faster than Minerva did."

"And Arthur?" Even after all these years, it hurt to think of why Arthur had left his Ministry job, to take up teaching.

"He misses Molly." Severus' voice was tinged with sorrow. "But I think it's easier for him here, especially considering how much of his family lives here. Hogwarts doesn't quite hold the same memories as the Burrow does, even rebuilt."

Harry shivered. He'd grieved with the rest of the family when Molly had died in the Death Eater raid that had destroyed the Burrow. But now, after losing Jessie, he thought he understood better the sort of grief Arthur experienced. If it had hurt that badly, after only four years, he thought it a miracle that the Weasley patriarch had managed to remain functional beyond his grief.

His lack of verbal response prompted Severus to continue speaking. "He's quite looking forward to meeting his youngest grandson. "

"So he said, when he talked to me on the telephone a few weeks ago. Said wizarding pictures might be better than Muggle but they were still just pictures."

"A sentiment you'll find echoed by most of your family and friends here."

"Including you, Severus?"

They'd reached the castle steps and the Headmaster nodded. "Even if you hadn't named me godfather and the child's middle name after me, you'd both be family to me, Harry." The black eyes were far warmer than they'd been in Harry's youth. That last, hellish year of the war had seen to breaking down the barriers between Harry and his mother's childhood best friend.

"Good. I was afraid you might have disowned me for being gone from home for so long."

"You needed the time away, and then you had a family to consider."

"Think the papers will be bothered I'm back in Britain?" Harry asked.

"It's possible. There's been nothing scandalous in the news lately, so your return might cause them to dig around and remember the rumors of why you left in the first place. But I think they'll be more sympathetic now. The new Minister isn't as tolerant of blatant attacks on families as past ones might have been."

Harry shrugged. "We'll worry about that when it happens, I suppose. Where are you housing us?"

"You recall that we moved all the students to towers now?" At the nod, the Headmaster continued, leading the way into a less familiar area of the castle for Harry. "There are three family quarters around each House tower instead of scattered around the castle. As Gryffindor's are all occupied, I've assigned you to the open quarters in Slytherin. I thought you might enjoy being near two of the professors nearest you in age."

"Draco and Millicent, yeah?"

"Correct. Hogwarts is not much like it was when I first started teaching and was the only professor under thirty. It's quite the change from sitting at a table full of middle-aged or elderly professors." Severus paused at a portrait of an elegantly dressed woman wearing robes suited to a prior century. She greeted the Headmaster with a nod, and Severus turned to Harry. "What password do you require?"

"Sopophorous."

The potion-ingredient answer, especially considering its source, made Severus chuckle. "It would confuse most trying to guess your password, to draw from potions, I suppose." The regal woman of the portrait repeated the word, and then the portrait swung inward.

Harry preceded Severus into the plainly furnished quarters, dropping the two bags to the floor near the sofa and looking around. It was obviously set up for him to either transfigure or replace the furniture to suit himself, with just the basics of sofa, table, and one comfortable chair in the living room area, and a surprisingly nice-sized kitchen with a four-person dining table.

"The house elves will change out anything you need replaced if you don't intend to change it yourself, Harry. I was uncertain what personal items of furniture you might bring with you from your old home, so my instructions were for them to just make sure you had the appropriate items to get started with right away and neutral colors until you instructed otherwise."

That earned Severus a smile from Harry. "I suppose that's better than everything in silver and green," he teased.

"Do not tempt me. My transfiguration skills might not be at Minerva's level, but I do control the house elves who can make any changes I make permanent." The dark eyes held a spark of amusement.

Harry pretended to be horrified at the thought. "You wouldn't subject your only godson to such a limited color scheme, surely."

After a moment, Severus smiled slightly. "Consider him your only bargaining point then." He reached out to caress the pale blonde hair on top of the baby's head. "It is unusual, seeing you with a blond child. I'm glad he has the Evans eyes. That is a legacy I shall enjoy see live on for wizarding generations."

"Would you like to hold him? He needs to wake up anyway. If he sleeps much longer, he'll really have his times off. I started adjusting his schedule last week, so he'd be better used to Scottish time than American," Harry explained, reaching into the sling to lift the child out. Richard yawned and shifted, awakened by the movement, blinking green eyes and looking around. At the sight of Severus, he gave a babyish grin, reaching out for the older wizard.

"I remain amazed at how well he retains a memory of me, with only a few visits," Severus noted as he took the baby into his arms with an ease that would surprise most who knew him.

"He's got a photo of you in his room." Harry shuffled in the baby's bag and drew out a small box and removed two bright green hearing aids. "He'll need these, now that he's awake." It took only a moment to get both in place on the baby's ears, and a muttered sticking charm followed. "He's taken to pulling them off and throwing them lately. They make little straps to hold them in place, but those irritate him more, and magic less."

"He does manage to hear somewhat with them?" Severus asked, smiling when the baby immediately turned at the sound of his deep voice.

"Enough to turn toward sounds, especially voices, since he's learned to associate the vibrations from someone speaking who is holding him to the sound. But the Muggle specialists and Healers both don't think he regains enough to learn to speak." Harry sighed softly. "I've been learning sign language, since it's not good for him to have no communication at all, and I think he's better at it than me."

"Of course he is. He's my godson, whereas you were always a bit slow to comprehend."

Harry couldn't help laughing at the fond tone the "insult" had been delivered in. "Thankfully I'm better at sign language than I was at academics in Hogwarts. I'm not fluent enough to carry on regular conversation with a fully deaf person yet, but enough so that I can teach Richard at least. I'd considered hiring a tutor, but it's nearly impossible to find a wizard or squib with the skillset needed to teach a profoundly deaf child."

Severus looked thoughtful as the baby patted his cheek before trying to nibble on the buttons of his robe. "Perhaps you should find a squib in need of employment and pay for them to train as his tutor. By the time he's exceeded what family can truly teach him, they should have completed their training."

"Now that's a great idea." Harry began to rummage in his own bag. He'd packed and shrunk almost everything but the baby's everyday bag with nappies, bottles, and a few toys and clothes, but thankfully had remembered to put a change of clothes in his own bag so he didn't immediately have to unpack everything.

"Muggle dress is perfectly fine for dinner, Harry. It's still summer, so the professors don't always wear full robes."

Harry shrugged. "I want to get back in the habit, even if I'm teaching your 'Cultural Studies' class." He grinned, slipping the forest green robes on over his plain black jeans and the grey t-shirt he'd worn for traveling. His were far less formal than Severus' robes, who had relaxed enough to work a bit of color into his clothing now, but still wore the same style clothing he had when Harry was a student. Harry's were the style worn by many of his generation, casualwear meant to be worn open over shirt and trousers. "I've a variety of Muggle clothing to wear when I'm teaching the Muggle Studies side of the class. But on the other hand, I need to show the Muggleborn and Muggle-raised students that there's more to wizarding clothing than just Hogwarts' uniform robes in Wizard Studies."

"So long as you don't begin to imitate Gilderoy Lockhart, I'll leave your clothing choices to you."

"Merlin forbid I turn into that sort of inane peacock."

Handing the baby back to Harry somewhat reluctantly, Severus nodded. "I will see you at dinner in the Great Hall in an hour. That should give you time to get settled in. During summer, the children all attend meals, if their parents wish to shuffle their entire horde through the castle. I imagine tonight everyone will be in attendance to welcome you and young Richard home."

"I'm looking forward to it." Harry gave the older wizard a smile in farewell, waiting until the portrait door clicked closed behind him to turn to his son, who was nibble-drooling on his small fist. "How about we start making this place look like ours, big guy?"

It earned him a wave of the slobbery fist and Harry smiled. The past nine months had been a constant swing between heaven and hell, but now they were back among family and no longer alone. It was good to be home.


	3. Chapter 3

_Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JKR, of course. Just puttering about in her world._

Harry hadn't finished unpacking by any stretch of the imagination but he'd at least begun to alter the plain living quarters into something resembling his own personal tastes. He'd decided that the next time he moved, he'd remember to label the packing boxes before shrinking them. Right now, the pile of cubes he'd tipped out on the sofa was a bit of a treasure hunt of enlarging the box, rummaging about, and then sending the items to where he thought they'd go best. All things considered, it likely meant he'd have to rearrange a half dozen times before he was truly settled in.

At least he'd found one of the important boxes – the box of family photos. The mantle above the fireplace was now graced with various photos from the first one he'd had of his parents to the last candid shot he'd had made with Jessie and Jamie before their deaths. He could look at that one finally without thinking he needed to remember how to breathe – without his chest constricting painfully enough to make it feel impossible – and was eternally grateful he'd used a wizarding camera.

Richard watched solemnly from his high chair, a half-eaten biscuit in one hand. Harry knew it was bad form to feed a baby sweets of any sort before dinner, but it was a well-deserved treat for the baby's patience during his father's haphazard unpacking. He'd had to transfigure one of the existing chairs into the baby's chair… he'd not yet found the box where he'd packed Richard's furniture. He'd have to find that by bedtime or transfigure something for a cot, he supposed.

He was halfway through sorting out one of the electronics boxes, glad that with Hermione's spell designs they'd function in Hogwarts once he'd set up his power panel out one of the windows. Another reason to be glad his quarters were in the lower levels of a tower – with true windows and not charmed ones. As he pondered the advisability of unpacking this box when he hadn't yet found the furniture it belong on, he heard a knock at the door and wondered who'd discovered not only that he'd arrived early – but where his quarters were. Only one way to figure that one out…

He opened the door to see a once-familiar blond standing outside, wearing clothes rather similar to Harry's own mixed Muggle & wizarding attire, although his robe was a deep blue rather than green. "Hey, Draco. How'd you manage to track me down already?" He motioned the other man inside.

"Severus met me on the way to his quarters and suggested I stop by to see if you needed any help."

"And you willingly agreed to help me unpack?" Harry asked, smiling. "Doesn't seem like the Draco I grew up with."

The blond shrugged. "The prat you grew up with went around blathering about blood purity and being stupid enough to want to be the Heir of Slytherin. You'll forgive me if I'd rather not be that Draco anymore."

"Thankfully growing up meant getting a bit smarter, yeah?" They'd at least settled their differences, that week before Harry had decided to leave Britain at the end of the war. In the years since, they'd not had a lot of contact, but Severus remained a constant source of news between them. Harry motioned to the pile of shrunken boxes on the sofa. "I should probably let the house elves finish it, but it wouldn't seem much like my own place if I let them sort it out."

Draco laughed. "Not to mention what they'd do when they encountered your Muggle stuff. The last Cultural Studies professor had to ban the elves from doing anything other than dusting the classroom due to their bouts of confusion in what the stuff was."

A thump on the high chair's tray drew both their attention to the baby, who gave his best two-tooth grin now that he had both men's attention.

"Someone wants an introduction, I see." Harry crossed to his son to caress his baby-soft blond hair. "Draco, this is my son, Richard Severus."

Harry was mildly surprised when Draco came over to the baby and produced a stuffed hippogriff from a pocket of his robes. He presented it to Richard, who instantly dropped the remains of the biscuit to take the offered toy.

"My daughter asked me to bring the toy. She's rather excited to hear there's a baby in our tower now." The soft smile Draco gave the baby reminded Harry that the Slytherin had had upheavals of his own in his personal life. He wasn't the cold and remote Malfoy Heir any more than Harry was the impetuous youth who'd feuded with him through six years at Hogwarts.

"How old is she now?"

"Just turned nine about two weeks ago."

"Seems a bit odd, trying to picture so many of my classmates with kids almost old enough for Hogwarts," Harry remarked.

The friendliness in the blond's expression cooled considerably and Harry wondered what he'd managed to say wrong, but before he could remark on it, Draco nodded. "Not just almost. Severus has been rather horrified to realize he's got three Weasleys starting this year."

Feeling awkward but not wanting to offend further, Harry smiled hesitantly. "Three Weasley girls, no less, all starting with his own son. He's probably having nightmares."

Whatever had been wrong, that seemed to dispel the strange coolness from Draco's features. "He claims he is, but Andromeda only laughs and reminds him at least none of them were sired by either of the twins."

Harry pretended to shudder. The twins had managed to reproduce several impish near-replicas of themselves, at least as far as their love of pranks. Some of the stories Harry'd heard over the years had been enough to make him just a bit glad there'd been a large ocean between him and the newest generation of Weasley pranks. "Those will arrive soon enough. They've got six between them, after all."

"Don't remind me. I think Severus is glad he's retired from teaching, and I'm just glad I teach an elective. If I'm lucky they'll think Runes far too boring to darken my classroom door."

"Lucky you, teaching an elective." Harry laughed, and then remembered Draco had arrived to help him unpack. "If you want to start unshrinking boxes and levitating them to the correct room, that would be a big help."

Draco nodded and unshrunk a box with a wave of his wand. "Harry, you do realize that most people label their boxes when they pack, right?"

"I kept losing the markers."

The blond paused in unsealing the box to give him a mock glare. "Just how many of them are you going to unpack from various boxes?"

Harry laughed. "All of them, probably, considering Richard isn't old enough to pocket them."

That got him a shake of the head from Draco, who turned back to inspect the box's contents. "Baby things." He flicked his wand to direct the box toward the hallway. "I'll assume you want the baby in the unfurnished bedroom."

"Yeah. Good plan, so long as I find his actual furniture for bedtime." Harry peered into his own box, deciding he had various bathroom items and sent it to the bathroom wandlessly.

"Showoff." Draco had returned just in time to see Harry flick his hand at the box and it disappear.

"Like you couldn't manage the same now that you've seen the layout of the rooms."

"With my wand, yeah. Waving my hand, not unless you want to risk your stuff ending up in the Great Hall or similarly lost."

Absorbed in opening the next box, Harry shrugged. "Most of it's replaceable, at least."

Draco paused to look at the photos on the mantle. "Looks like you found one of the most important ones already."

Harry glanced over his shoulder and smiled. "Second box I unpacked. How's that for luck? Makes it feel like home with just those out."

"Family photos do have that effect." He reached out and picked up the photo of Harry, Jessie, and Jamie, studying the trio. They were all in Muggle attire, jeans and t-shirts, with Harry's jet-black hair a strong contrast to the honey-blonde of the brother and sister who flanked him. "Do you think Richard's hair will darken up to this shade?" he asked, almost absently.

After a moment, Harry answered, voice soft with emotion. "Merlin, I hope so."

Apologetic after his inadvertent reminder of Harry's loss, Draco replaced the photo and returned to the task of helping unpack. "Sorry. Sometimes my mouth engages before my brain. Not very Slytherin of me, I know."

"It's easier now, at least." Harry sent another box to its room and glanced at the blond. "Coming back to the wizarding world helps. I don't expect either of them to appear around the corner in this castle after all."

The other wizard nodded in understanding, then cast a Tempus charm. "It's nearly time for dinner. I can come back to help after, if you don't mind company later."

"If your daughter doesn't mind, I'd appreciate it."

"She'll think Christmas and her birthday both came at once if she gets to play with the baby while we finish up."

Sending the current box he was working on to the bedroom, Harry went to retrieve Richard from the high chair, where he had been content to gnaw on his new toy. Casting a quick cleaning charm to clear the remains of the biscuit from chair, baby, and hippogriff, he gathered the baby up and settled him on his hip.

"Grab his bag, will you?" he asked Draco.

Passing the baby's bag to Harry, Draco gently touched one of the bright bits of green plastic nestled behind the baby's ears. "How well do these work?" he asked, unable to contain his curiosity any longer.

"Not as well as I'd like. But at least he has some hearing with them."

Grey eyes met green. "And none without?"

"As far as we can tell, no. Muggle and wizard tests both show profound, irreversible hearing loss. None of the spells or potions tried worked. There's a Muggle thing, a type of electronic implanted in his ears, but it's not well-accepted in the Muggle deaf community and it'll destroy what little hearing he has."

"Does it matter what the Muggle deaf folk think?"

"Yeah. If he's not a wizard, I don't want to alienate him unnecessarily. Plus, I keep hoping some spell or potion advancement will help, and part of me worries that if I opt for the implants, there won't be enough left for his hearing to be restored."

Again, Harry caught a flicker of something less friendly from Draco, but it was gone as quickly as it came. "Understandable." The blond dropped his hand from the baby's ear and turned toward the door. "If there's a way to turn those off, you might want to before we reach the Great Hall. I suspect there will be a lot of feminine shrieking in delight when they lay eyes on him."

Harry couldn't help the laughter that drew his son's gaze upward to him, Richard's expression curious over the stuffed toy. "You just might be right about that."

Draco's rich laugh joined Harry's and he led the way to the door. Harry was a bit shocked to realize how comfortable he'd found the other man's company. It would be nice to do more than bury past enmity and perhaps manage a true friendship with his old rival.

_A/N:_

_Columcille: Thank you for being the very first reviewer! I agree wholeheartedly about the chuckle/giggle thing. The only time I'd see a grown man "giggle" would be if he were very drunk – or sucking down helium. lol As for Jessie, it's a bit of a unisex name on the American side of things, although the masculine is more often spelled as Jesse. With Cultural Studies, I thought it'd be a bit wasteful to have separate Muggle/Wizard Studies professors, even with the changes "my" Hogwarts has, so it seemed less of a mouthful to deem it Cultural Studies instead. I'm glad you like my writing style, as it's been many years since I did creative writing of any sort (since my writing mate lost her battle with cancer four years ago actually). I'm a bit rusty! _


	4. Chapter 4

_Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JKR, of course. Just puttering about in her world._

_A/N: I uploaded chapter 3 yesterday, late evening, so don't miss it. Just wanted to make sure I got today's chapter uploaded, so it's a bit early._

Draco's prediction about the noise level – of the feminine shrieking sort anyway – in the Great Hall was fairly accurate. Rather than adjust the hearing aids themselves (and risk the baby's irritation), Harry had cast a silencing spell variant to just keep noise to normal speaking levels for a small bubble around Richard. The trick had earned him a smirk from the blond wizard, who had swung open the doors to the Great Hall… and quickly stepped _behind_ Harry and his son.

It proved to be a prudent idea, as the newcomers were enveloped almost immediately by both Hermione and Tonks, with various Weasley spouses hovering to exclaim happily over the baby's pale colored hair. Giving into the obvious wish of his oldest female friend to hold the baby, he passed Richard over and watched his son be absorbed into the gaggle of admiring women.

"We don't exist at the moment, do we?" he remarked to Draco, who moved to stand beside him as the women moved away.

"I suppose Hermione will remember you eventually, but the rest, probably not." The Slytherin shrugged. "Might as well join the men up at the table until this lot remembers we're here to eat."

Finding that a less daunting idea than staying amid the females engaged in spoiling his son utterly rotten, Harry followed him the rest of the way to the Staff Table, glancing around the Great Hall as he did. The ceiling had been repaired after the final battle, and displayed the outdoor sky with all its former glorious enchantment. There were more tables than the four that had existed in Harry's time, and at his questioning look, Draco explained.

"First years sit together regardless of House. Severus figured they have plenty of time in their common rooms to form House ties. He's prone to rearranging seating if they clump up by House at that table too. Usually only has to do it once or twice before they get the idea." With a wave of his hand, Draco indicated the sixth student table. "Same idea, but opposite age group. Seventh years have the same rules. It cuts down on House rivalry, and better than abolishing Houses altogether."

Harry nodded. While some students, like Luna, had often sat with friends at other House tables, it hadn't been a common practice to mingle during meals.

"Summer time, most of the staff and family gather for dinner. Kids sit at the family table both summer and during term," continued the explanation, and the blond wizard indicated a table in an alcove not in full view of the student tables. "During term, spouses usually sit there too, although summers it's not unusual to spill down onto the student tables. We're asked to take turns sitting at the staff table, at least four of us at each meal. There's a schedule, although you're likely exempt until Richard's a bit older."

The explanation ended there as they'd reached the men gathered around the Staff Table, and Harry was immediately swept into the arms of his foster father. He returned Arthur Weasley's hug, which lasted longer than a welcome home embrace normally would, but the others seemed to understand the need each widower had for the other's comfort at the moment. Arthur had come for the funeral in January, and then had returned to spend the Easter holidays with Harry and Richard, along with Severus and his family. It had been the week he'd finally been able to bring the baby home from the hospital after nearly four full months in NICU.

Finally Arthur and Harry stepped back, meeting each other's gaze fondly. "It's so good to have you both back, Harry," the older man said.

"It's good to be back, actually." Harry found himself swept from Arthur into an equally emotional hug from Remus, then passed among the Weasley males for enthusiastic, brotherly hugs.

"Oy, Harry, maybe you'd have been safer with the women," he heard, and laughed at the amusement in Draco's voice.

"Perhaps. Although at least the Misters Weasley won't pinch his cheeks and remark on how he needs to eat more, as the women will when they remember they forgot to greet him." Severus' silky voice was as amused as Draco's.

Of course, that just prompted his foster brothers to do exactly what was predicted for the women, and Harry found himself laughingly shoved into Charlie's lap so the wheelchair-bound man could add his own pinch to the routine. He managed an escape when Charlie began a rather enthusiastic poking of ribs in the name of checking if he were too thin.

"Millicent!" Ron cried out, causing the dark-haired, sturdily-built woman to turn from the group with the baby. "Your husband's molesting Harry a bit here."

The Potions professor simply shook her head at the antics of the men, easily distracted by Richard being passed into her arms from her sister-in-law.

Harry found himself in a much less boisterous, but no less welcome, hug from Neville and smiled. "It's not fair that you're taller than me," he muttered to his fellow Gryffindor.

Neville laughed. "I've been taller than you since fifth year. You'd think you'd be used to it by now."

As the men began to sort out seating at the table, Harry's gaze went to the children's table, where many mischievous eyes met his. Where once meals in the Burrow's kitchen had been a sea of redheads broken up only by the darker shades of his and Hermione's hair, the children seated here had much more variety to their looks. With none of the Weasley offspring marrying redheads, the trait hadn't surfaced in many of the children.

Neville's gaze followed his own and he began to name off the children, pointing among them with ease of practice in the names. His own status as an honorary Weasley after marrying Hermione made him uncle to almost all of the children at the table, and Harry wouldn't be surprised if the non-Weasley children called him that out of sheer peer pressure. The surprise to Harry was the final child introduced, Draco's daughter, Alcyone.

The calm grey eyes that met his when the girl was introduced were pure Malfoy, of course, the same silvery shade that her father and grandfather had. But her hair lay in silky, jet-black braids, as far from the moonlight blond of the Malfoys as it was possible for hair to get. She returned Harry's smile with one of her own, then ducked her gaze shyly back to her plate.

"Takes some getting used to, doesn't it?" Neville said softly. "I'm just glad I'm more used to Andromeda than Bellatrix when I look at her. Otherwise it'd be a bit eerie, how much she looks like a Black with her inheriting her mother's dark hair."

Harry nodded in silent agreement, glad Draco wasn't close enough to hear the remark. He'd already managed to somehow offend the man twice without knowing how. Hearing any remark comparing his daughter to his thankfully-dead, insane aunt was not likely to help matters in the least. He turned back to the Staff Table to find the men had enlarged the platform and table to seat all the adults, and he was dragged unceremoniously to sit between Ron – and to his surprise – Draco.

The redhead elbowed him as the women finally made their way to the table. "We stuck them all on the other side. Figured that way they can pass the baby back and forth among them, at least until they remember there are a couple more babies around to share."

That drew laughs from the men as the women sent mock glares and found seats so that the house elves could finally serve the meal.

"It's a bit like a Weasley family gathering here tonight," Harry said.

"Of course, mate. We weren't about to let you come home without a proper welcome. Those of us who aren't idiots anyway."

"Who?" Harry did a mental headcount of the redheads and then sighed softly. "Ginny didn't come?"

"She was invited, but Ernie was convinced it was inappropriate for them to be here tonight, at your welcome home party of all things." As he dug into his food, Harry noted his friend's manners were much improved from their school days, which was probably due to the patient training of Ron's wife Orla. The younger Ravenclaw had managed to add some polish to her husband after six years of marriage.

"Oh." Harry sighed. "It's completely old history, Ron. I wish they'd understand that by now. It's not like I didn't move on."

"Yeah, but I think everything this year for you dug out every bit of guilt all over again for both of them."

"It shouldn't."

"Give it time. They'll come to their senses eventually and realize they're just being stupid."

Harry hoped Ron was right. The last thing he wanted was rumors of a rift between himself and Ginny or her husband. It would cause the papers to dredge up all the old gossip in a heartbeat, and probably make up plenty more to embellish it. He had no wish to be pitied again because Ginny had chosen someone else in the final year of the war when he'd been gone on the Horcrux hunt with Ron and Hermione.

Shaking off the pessimistic feeling that had crept up on him when he'd realized the MacMillans hadn't attended tonight's dinner, Harry turned his attention back to those who had bothered to come. It was easy enough to do in the chatter around the table, as people rushed to catch him up on the latest news of their family and of former classmates.

He had to laugh when talk turned to the coming school year, and the teasing directed toward Severus about obtaining three Weasley students all at once. He knew something was up when Tonks' grinned cheekily across the table at the Headmaster.

"You know, Severus, Remus tallied it up the other night for me. Do you realize that those three are only the first? You'll have a Weasley starting school every single year for the next eleven years, at least."

Laughter erupted around the table as Severus looked horrified at the thought, which prompted Remus to chime in with what was obviously a planned disclosure between him and his wife. "Perhaps he should be more concerned when that eleventh year rolls around. After all, that's the year he gets a Weasley, Potter, and Granger offspring all in the same year."

"I assure you, Remus, that you'll be Headmaster, not Deputy, when that happens, as I fully intend to retire the prior year," came Severus' obviously amused reply. "You forget one of those children is also a Longbottom!"

The laughter went from amused to uproarious then, and Harry was happy to be joining in, though he realized Draco didn't seem to be quite as amused by the jokes.

He waited until the talk had drifted to other topics before asking the blond quietly, "anything wrong?"

Draco gave a shaky jerk of his head, obviously not wanting to talk. Unwilling to tread where he was unwelcome, Harry turned back to the rest of the table conversation. Whatever was bothering the Slytherin would have to wait until Draco wanted to talk about it. If it kept up, he'd ask Severus perhaps, but for now, he figured it best to let things lie.

_A/N:_

_HeartsGlow: Good catch actually on the people in the photo being a bit ambiguous on their identity. They are brother and sister and neither is Harry's child. Richard's his only child; his firstborn. I'm being a bit cagey on giving out details about the photo just yet, although I imagine some will likely figure out that plot point before I reveal it (probably in Chapter 6 or 7, I think, at current pace). As for what's wrong with Draco, that'll be revealed in Chapter 5._

_Sunset on Heartache: Thank you! I'm glad you find the story realistic. Having a child born as a micro-preemie makes chances of some sort of disability highly likely, and I figured loss of hearing or sight would be the two possibilities least likely to have a magical cure. One of my dearest friends was born with no optic nerves, so he's been completely, utterly blind from birth. He's also one of the most amazing people you'd ever meet – got a master's degree in counseling so he could work as a rehab counselor helping other disabled people. Writing an accurate disability view is my homage to him. :) _


	5. Chapter 5

_Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JKR, of course. Just puttering about in her world._

Getting settled in and ready to teach his classes at Hogwarts took up so much of Harry's time that he let what he'd noticed with Draco completely slip his mind until the weekend before school was due to start. Once word had gotten around quietly that he was back in Britain, he'd also had invitations to bring Richard out to have dinner with their families. Between those invitations and the non-resident Weasleys who insisted that Harry had to at least visit their homes for a dinner or two, he actually managed nearly that full two weeks without having another dinner in the Great Hall.

This one didn't repeat the noise levels of the first night, thankfully, and he actually managed to have his son perched in a high chair between him and Remus, who'd taken the seat on the other side. "No wife tonight?" he inquired of his adoptive godfather.

Remus shook his head. "Dora's morning sickness has unfortunately relocated to dinner time, and she told me if I hovered around her one more second, she'd see to it that I never had the chance to make her go through it again."

Harry chuckled. "How's it feel to know you'll be a dad again when your youngest is so much older?"

"Probably less weird than it was for Andromeda to have Adrian when she already was a grandmother."

"True. At least Vivian's only nine. Are she and Teddy still happy about the new baby?"

"Vivian's overjoyed. Teddy's at that age where baby's aren't that interesting, even if he will see his sibling more than the average Hogwarts student would if a new baby came along."

"Twelve. The age where Quidditch trumps everything else, including homework."

"Don't reflect happily on that age, Harry. You'll be the one trying to get them to do their homework instead of play Quidditch now." Remus' tone was rueful. "Just when they get over the Quidditch obsession, they'll discover girls and you'll lose their attention again."

Hiding his amusement behind his teacup, Harry shrugged. "I'm just glad that's all they have to distract them these days."

The Deputy Headmaster nodded in agreement. "Thank Merlin for that."

Draco plopped down into the chair on the other side of Harry, looking exhausted. "Remus, is it too late to tell you and Severus I resign as Head of House?"

"He'll simply threaten to make Harry take over instead."

The Slytherin looked horrified. "The Slytherins would riot if they had a Gryffindor Head of House. Besides, he's got Millicent already."

"She told him if he ever tried to make her Head of House, he'd be teaching Potions again himself," Remus explained calmly. They were the first three in the Great Hall tonight, although those with families didn't often dine here especially as busy as they were with pre-term preparations.

"So it's down to me or him?" Draco asked.

"I'm afraid so. At least you get a sort-of-Slytherin with Harry. That's where the Sorting Hat wanted him, so I'm told."

"What?" The sheer indignation in the surprised exclamation made Harry laugh until the blond glared at him. "How in Merlin's name did you get in Gryffindor if the Hat wanted you in Slytherin? Is that why it took so bloody long our first night here?"

Nodding, Harry spooned a bit of mashed vegetables into his son's mouth before answering. "The Hat was rather insistent that I fit best in Slytherin, but I wanted to be in the same House as my parents." No point in telling Draco that the beginnings of their little rivalry had been one of the other reasons he'd sat under the Hat insisting on anything but Slytherin.

The answer seemed to defuse Draco's ire at the implied insult to his House and he relaxed back into the tired pose he'd begun with. "I don't know how Severus did it. He had a much more time-consuming subject plus his other duties."

"He took out all his stress on the other three Houses?" Harry suggested with a grin.

"I do remember him taking points from you for breathing too loudly or some such."

Chuckling, Harry nodded. "Among other things. And to think he's this one's godfather, after so many years of not wanting me to breathe in his class."

"It wasn't the breathing that frightened me so much as the thought of what you'd miss next in spending half the class trying to fight with Draco," came the oft-abhorred, now-loved voice behind Harry. Severus' hand came out to ruffle the baby's blond hair as he passed by to seat himself on the other side of Remus. "Or what you two would throw in each other's cauldron's next. If I'd taken points for all the proper things, neither Gryffindor nor Slytherin would have had any left after each of your classes."

"We weren't that bad, surely?" Harry asked. Apparently Richard was done with the whole idea of mashed vegetables, because the latest spoonful was promptly spat out. The baby's comic disgust had him smiling as he switched to the fruit he'd held back for pudding.

"Put it this way," Remus interjected. "From what I heard – and saw a bit in the corridors and Great Hall – I'm quite glad that Dumbledore didn't double your two Houses up for my class."

That reminded Harry of something he'd been meaning to ask. "I know there's been things done to damp down on House rivalry now, and what Draco and I were doing was rather beyond what color our ties were, but does this truly work? The whole first years eating together and all that?"

"Surprisingly so," Remus answered. "And Severus and I devised a spell to ensure that all years spend equal time in shared classes with the other Houses. I also suggest not allowing your classroom to divide evenly by House and making sure group projects are assigned as cross-House work tends to help too."

Draco nodded, shaking off the tiredness he'd displayed earlier. "In Runes, I arrange the desks in a big circle and require the students to alternate how they sit. They still end up sorting it out with the more serious or studious students grouping together, but at least it's on ability or ambition and not House ties. But my classes tend to be smaller than what you'll have, Harry, now that Cultural Studies starts in first year and is required through fifth."

The newest professor actually grinned expectantly. "I'm looking forward to all the changes. Muggle Studies sounded like the most boring thing on earth when I was younger, enough that I didn't take it even though it would have been an easy O for me. It's such a useful subject now, and I would have given half my vault to have gotten Wizarding Studies any time in my years here. I'm thirty and still feel half-ignorant of a world I was supposedly born to."

"Considering you've lived on the barest fringes of it for the last decade, you've missed out on a lot. But you've got one of the best resources possible on any confusing details right next door to you," Remus said.

Harry turned to Draco with a hopeful look. "I've got the textbooks from last year that I continued with, but some of the lesson plans seem a bit quirky on the wizarding side. I've cleaned up the Muggle ones. Are you caught up enough to take a look for me and give me any tips on additions to the curriculum?"

The blond shrugged. "I'm as ready as I'll ever be. And Allie's been going nuts wanting to visit the baby again." He had helped Harry finish unpacking, as promised, and his prediction that the little girl would be overjoyed to spend time with Richard had been true. She hadn't even been perturbed by the baby's hearing aids. He glanced to where his daughter was finishing her meal at the kiddie table, nearly done because they'd arrived early. "We're ready whenever you are."

"Now's good for me. Miss the dinner rush," Harry teased. He bid farewell to Severus and Remus, as well as the newly arriving professors and their families. Cleaning up the baby with the aid of a cloth instead of a spell, he pushed back his chair and gathered his son, waiting on Draco and Allie to join them for the walk back to Slytherin Tower.

Their footsteps echoed a bit in the corridors, the steady thumps of the men's boots accompanied by the lighter taps of Allie's shoes. Harry was content to walk in silence, until Allie slipped between them and reached up to each man with a shy hand. Meeting the other man's eyes, Harry took the offered hand, glad the girl seemed comfortable with him.

"I meant to thank you, about sharing your nanny," he said to Draco over her head.

"It didn't make sense to hire an extra nanny, when we live so close, and Allie loves babies so much. I assure you that Louisa certainly doesn't mind the extra salary. She's probably relieved, since if things work out with you, she'll still have a post when Allie outgrows needing a nanny."

"Makes sense. Bit of an unsettling job to have, watching someone else's children grow up and being out of a job when they do." Harry sighed. "Although she won't be solely in charge of Richard eventually. Severus has found someone willing to get the training to become Richard's tutor since it'd be hard for him to attend the primary school here."

"Luna probably wouldn't care if he did come to class, but she does have quite a few to educate now."

They'd reached the portrait-door to Harry's quarters, and he spoke the password openly. He'd decided that first night that he had no qualms with his coworker – and hopefully friend – gaining easy entrance. If nothing else, someone nearby should be able to access his quarters, for safety if Severus wasn't available. It drew a raised eyebrow from Draco, but the blond didn't comment as he ushered Allie inside.

It took only a moment to get Richard settled with his toys and the older girl plopped beside him on the floor to play in the baby's room. Harry retrieved his lesson plans from his desk in the living room and offered them to Draco as he joined him on the sofa.

"I did have one question though."

"Hmmm?" Draco, who had already begun to scan the parchments, met his gaze distractedly.

"Why do you still have a nanny? Because you're a widower too? The only other nannies seem to be for the nursery age kids."

Grey eyes turned wintery in an instant. "She's a Malfoy. We always have someone to look after us until we leave for school."

The change reminded Harry of the other times he'd somehow managed to offend his coworker and he shivered. "I didn't mean to offend you, Draco. I was simply curious. And that's not the first time you've gone cold on me about something I've said, usually about children in general or Allie specifically."

The other man sighed, gaze going to the parchments for a moment, before rising to stare unseeing at the unlit fireplace across from them. "It isn't you, not really." He was quiet for a few minutes, obviously thinking someone over. "I had a nanny, but a house elf, not a witch," he began softly. "Still have her, if you want to be specific, since she's still at the Manor. But you don't use elf nannies if a child is a squib."

"Oh." Harry let the magnitude of what that meant sink in. "But she's only nine. Are you sure?"

"We've had every test and potion possible run on her. I won't resort to barbaric means like Neville's uncle did to him, to force magic, but by now, something should show. Severus even tried to look in the Hogwarts' Roster, but the damn thing refuses to show anything other than the upcoming students. Even those aren't revealed until a year before the children start."

The information made Harry's stomach lurch. "And what does your family think about it?" Lucius Malfoy might have gotten a pardon after the war because going turncoat prior to the final battle had helped turn the tide, but he was still a staunch, old-fashioned pureblood.

"Amazingly, he's never wavered in how he treats her. She's had him wrapped around her finger since the day she was born." Draco took a deep breath. "As it became more and more apparent that she has no magic, he began to research Muggle schools. The nanny's Muggleborn too. We've made sure Allie's comfortable in both worlds… just in case."

"Ah. That's why you were thrown off by me being so casual about whether or not Richard has magic."

A jerky nod confirmed the statement. "I'm surprised no one mentioned it to you. We had an incident last term, with a second year taunting her and the nanny in a corridor. Some people take vicious delight that the Malfoy Heir's only child is a squib and pass that on to their children."

"I hope the little brat was punished severely." Harry felt like growling at the thought of some near teenage child choosing to bully delicate little Allie for something far beyond her control. It reminded him far too much of his own childhood – although he'd been bullied by his cousin for having magic.

"Severus damn near expelled him. He's very strict about any of the students bullying the staff's children. As it is, the boy will start off the term with a month's detentions." Draco turned to meet Harry's eyes, finally managing a small smile. "I believe they're to be served learning things "Muggle style" with you, actually."

Harry grinned, knowing he shouldn't take delight in punishing a third year. "I'll see to it that the child gets a firm grasp on the ways technology can outrank magic then. Plus my classroom can't be cleaned magically."

Draco's smile expanded. "Good. It'll be nice for some of the little cretins like I was at that age to be reminded that the Man-Who-Defeated-Voldemort is damn near Muggle himself."

Snorting in amusement, Harry bumped Draco's shoulder with his, and then went to sort out drinks for them both. With luck, he'd be able to remind a lot of the snottier children than it was prejudice that had brought their world to the brink of destruction twelve years ago. It seemed like some were beginning to forget.

_A/N:_

_Sunset on Heartache: You guessed correctly that it had something to do with young Alcyone. Something to keep in mind for the story as a whole is that the first category I chose for it was "Family", with "Romance" coming second. It is a Drarry piece, but the family aspect is far more important than the romantic one._


	6. Chapter 6

_Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JKR, of course. Just puttering about in her world._

_A/N: Two reviewers (Sunset on Heartache & Lupinesence) requested a Who's Who of this AU-Hogwarts. I've posted the family tree of the Weasleys and other significant characters at a Weebly site for the story (http:/ mustgoon [dot] weebly [dot] com), which is currently my website listed on my bio as well. I may update the page with other story tidbits as things progress. Notes to reviewers below the story as usual._

Harry stood, arms crossed, watching the third-year cleaning his classroom floor with scrub brush and bucket. He'd started out the week fairly easily on the boy, intending to allow for his youth and possible poor parental influence. Draco had been a right prat at that age, after all, and mostly just parroting his father's prejudices. Graham Morgan was a half-blood, with one Muggleborn and one Muggle parent. It hadn't stopped the boy from being as arrogant – perhaps more so – than Draco at his worst.

The boy had been foolish enough to expect Harry Potter to go easy on him, in light of shared Muggleborn mothers. He'd been wrong, and the resentment that rolled off the boy as he completed this detention was almost tangible. The first night Harry truly had gone light; figuring having a detention the first day of classes was rough on any teenager. But when that one had ended, young Morgan's insistence he'd done nothing wrong in taunting a child four years younger had raised his professor's hackles.

The detentions were currently a month's worth of Monday, Wednesday, Friday detentions, to give the boy time to complete his homework. But if things kept on the current path, Harry had a feeling he'd be seeing the boy for a true month's worth of detentions. He'd have the cleanest classroom in the castle at this rate.

"You're done, for tonight, Mr. Morgan," Harry said at last. The boy had cleaned all the desks of what little had accumulated during the week and gotten the floor shining clean. His first detention on Wednesday night had taught him not to try to shirk on his work when he'd been made to redo everything and been threatened with a Saturday detention with the castle caretaker added to his punishment.

The boy shoved his dark fringe back and shot his professor a resentful look as Harry banished the dirty water and sent the bucket and brush back to their storage place. He stood there, shifting from foot to foot, waiting tensely for a dismissal.

Knowing the Headmaster had probably already gone over this with the boy, Harry couldn't help trying to talk sense into him. "Is it Miss Malfoy personally you have a problem with, or just anyone different from you?" he asked.

Morgan shrugged. "My father says it's just punishment, her being a Squib."

Harry frowned. "I'm not sure I'd care to agree with anyone who thought a child should be punished for what a parent or grandparent had done. Or that being a Squib is a punishment. Is there something wrong with your mother or grandparents that they lack magic? They're not any different than Miss Malfoy in that aspect."

"They were born like their parents."

The sheer stupidity of that logic made Harry want to shake some sense into the boy. "Yet your father wasn't. By the logic you're giving me, your father is being punished for something his parents did wrong, as they birthed a child so different from themselves. Or your own mother is, because she married someone different from herself and had a magical child."

If the boy scowled any harder, his eyebrows might meet his lips. "That's different!"

"How so? Miss Malfoy appears to be a rather sweet, well-raised child. Although I must say you're doing a good imitation of the behavior of the pureblood prats I went to school here with. Is that what you want to be compared to? You're certainly spouting the same sort of filth some of the children of Death Eaters did to me and others like me."

"Her father was a Death Eater!"

"And if you'd bothered to pay attention in History of Magic, Mr. Morgan, you'd know that I testified for the man at his trial. What would you have done, if someone held your mother captive and swore they'd kill her and you both if you didn't join up?"

"I'd have died first, and she'd have wanted the same!" The heat in the youth's voice would have been amusing, had the topic not been so serious.

"Easy enough to say when you're not face-to-face with one of the most evil men ever to grace our world." Harry uncrossed his arms and moved to stand directly in front of the boy. "And regardless of his choices, the end result is that Professor Malfoy saved my life. Without his aid, Voldemort might still live."

Morgan grimaced and Harry sighed, realizing he was wasting his time. "You can go to dinner now. I'll see you after classes on Monday for your next detention. But let me be perfectly clear with you. If I even so much as hear a whisper of you bullying any child, student or younger, in this castle for being different than yourself in any way, I will make sure you serve detention until the end of term. Understood?"

The teenager gave a jerky nod of his head and fled the classroom, leaving Harry to seek his chair. He buried his face in his hands with a groan.

"He's still being a little berk?"

Green eyes met grey as Harry looked up at the newcomer to his classroom. "If I hear a sentence start out with the words 'my father' from him again, I might regress to third year myself and hex the boy," he admitted.

"Giving you flashbacks to my own rash youth, then?"

"And then some. I'd like to think he's the exception in his prejudice, but I know better. Has Allie had any more trouble out of him or other bullies since term started?"

Draco shook his head. "None so far, but it's early yet. I think it'll help she's been seen with you and that Richard's known to be yours. No one wants to risk your wrath, doing something in front of your child's nanny."

Harry snorted in derision at the thought. "They completely forget that Louisa was already here, then." He sighed and began to gather up the scrolls students had turned in today and stuffed them in his bag. "Did you need me for anything?"

The other man hesitated, then brought a newspaper out and handed it to Harry. "Tomorrow's _Daily Prophet_. Father still has contacts there and someone owled him this earlier today."

Taking the paper, Harry wasn't sure he wanted to look. It had to involve him if Lucius had found it urgent enough to send along. Reminding himself he'd faced down a Dark Lord multiple times, he unfolded the paper and sighed.

A photo of him, obviously from the Welcome Feast, showed him shaking his head as he listened intently to Neville, and then clapping. When he thought back to the Sorting two nights earlier, he wondered if someone had snapped the picture when he and Neville had been discussing what Houses the three young Weasleys would be sorted into. He'd won the bet, surprisingly considering how long he'd lived abroad. But he'd heard enough family stories to know that Percy's daughter Molly was a sure shot for Hufflepuff, and he had a strong guess that Ginny's daughter Abigail would follow. Victoire Weasley was so obviously a Ravenclaw the Hat hadn't even settled on her head, reminding Harry of Draco's sorting.

Some idiot at the Prophet had put a new spin on things, one Harry had dreaded, yet expected.

"Once-Jilted Harry Potter Sees Lover's Child Sorted. I swear, do they drop the reporters on their heads in the gutters there? Of course I saw Abigail sorted. I'd have to be blind to have missed the child, MacMillan surname or not!"

Draco laughed. "I suppose you were expecting something like this then?"

Harry nodded. "It was inevitable, with me returning to Britain the year Ginny's daughter started Hogwarts. Maybe it'll blow over quickly, once everyone realizes there's no bad blood between Ginny and me."

"Depends, you know. I'm surprised they haven't run some sort of poor widower piece on you already."

Wadding up the newspaper and tossing it in the air, Harry sent an incendio at the offending paper wad. "Considering only close friends and family truly knew for sure I was back, I figure that'll be the next round," he admitted.

"Perhaps you should control the publicity? Give them an interview or two? Or give Luna's father another exclusive just to rub it in their faces that you won't deal with the Prophet?"

"There's a thought." Harry flashed Draco a grateful smile, liking that he got a warm, pleased smile in return from the other man. "I'll ask her at dinner. I can't beat the Prophet's trash to press, but at least I can get something out there officially."

"The paper's not the only reason I came. Father also thinks he's found someone who might be useful to you to train as Richard's tutor. I think Allie's babbled so much about the baby in her letters that she's recruited him to help out."

"That's something that Mr. Morgan would never believe," Harry said in amusement.

"His loss, if he's insisting on being daft. The man's a Squib from a family that was pretty much neutral in both wars. Not the sort of family that worried about having a Squib in the family so he's attended good Muggle schools. He just doesn't have the funds to continue his education."

"Ask your father to set up a meeting then. I'd like to at least have a chat with him."

"I'll let him know. Are you up for a dinner at the Manor? I know Mother would love to play hostess to you and meet the baby Allie's raving about."

"Sounds good to me, as long as it's on a weekend. I don't want to be rushed because of class the next day." Shoving the last of the homework into his bag with a grimace and shouldering it, Harry led the way to the door. "I've enough headaches marking all these assignments."

Draco laughed. "You're the professor, Harry. Just remember when you assign homework, you're stuck with marking it!"

"It's the best way to figure out where the students are, assigning essays. The last professor was mostly competent, but I hate that Severus got saddled with a wizarding raised professor. I almost wonder if the two classes are better separate than linked." He sighed as they made their way down the corridor. "I'm not exactly expert on the wizarding size of things. I've read about the traditions and all, but they don't always make sense."

"We can always mark papers in the evenings together, if you like. I can give the Wizarding Studies ones a look over."

"Sure you don't mind? That's giving up a lot of your free time to help me out."

"Free time?" The blond wizard chuckled. "I don't think you've had time to notice, Harry, but I spend almost all my free time with my daughter. And she's certainly not going to object to hanging about your quarters after dinner."

"I wasn't sure if you were dating or something like that."

"Not bloody likely. One marriage was plenty for me. I'm not looking for someone just out for the name or fortune, and that's all most want."

Harry sighed, glancing at the man he was beginning to see as a friend. "I'd have figured Lucius would be after you to remarry, considering…"

"The first try was such an unmitigated disaster that he says he's staying out of it. He's spent the last three years trying to find loopholes in the Malfoy inheritance requirements to allow for an adopted Heir or a female one, if Allie somehow shows magic."

"She can't inherit otherwise?"

"She can inherit a large sum of money, yes, and some of the family properties, since there are dowry and purchased properties that aren't entailed to a male Heir of Malfoy blood. But the magics on the Manor especially are so deeply inlaid they require a wizard to inherit them."

"Bit stupid of your ancestors to require a male heir of the blood."

"Yeah. At least the Blacks had a failsafe of inheritance through the distaff line."

"Distaff? I thought it was me being Sirius' godson?"

Draco shook his head. "You've never given that family tapestry at Grimmauld a study, have you?"

"No. Should I?"

"You should. You're a Black yourself, closer than me actually if you're looking at distaff lines. Your Potter grandmother was a Black, aunt to Sirius' mother and my grandfather."

"Oh. And all these years I've felt rather odd for having the Black fortune and properties." Harry looked thoughtful as they reached his quarters, not really minding as Draco followed him inside. He tossed his bag on the sofa and turned to the other wizard. "By those rules, then I guess that means you'd be the next in line, yeah? Since Teddy's further down the family tree?"

"That depends on whether or not Richard is a wizard, since his disability doesn't matter for the magical inheritance, just that he's a wizard. As for me, I'm not entirely certain. I think you'd have to restore Aunt Andie to the Black family officially for Teddy to be legally able to inherit anything entailed. And I'd have to check Mother's marriage contract. I wouldn't be surprised if it disavows a claim by the actual Malfoy Heir. The Blacks wouldn't have wanted to be absorbed into the Malfoys, even if they liked a marriage alliance with them."

"Ugh. It's all too complicated for my liking."

"That's why Father's been digging around for loopholes. He's smart enough to admit that the family inheritance requirements are too restrictive. It's one thing to require a magical heir when the properties themselves are so deeply magical they can't be controlled by a Squib, but basing it on gender too is just asking to have the places abandoned."

"I wonder how many of those there are now, abandoned magical homes that no one can access anymore because the families died out in the wars," Harry said thoughtfully. "I should find out which of the Potter properties, if any, are entailed to a magical heir, and whether or not an adopted heir is allowed. My will has Teddy as my heir, as my godson, after Richard, but I hadn't thought about Andie being disinherited, since Sirius was, but still inherited."

Draco snorted. "Aunt Walburga might have burned him off that tapestry, but I guarantee you he wasn't truly disinherited. Or else his brother or father restored him in regret later. Grimmauld Place would have closed itself up until an acceptable magical male heir turned up otherwise. Besides, you might have other children."

"Perhaps. But I'd rather know all the details and not feel quite as ignorant about wizarding law and such. There's no guarantee I'll find someone again, or that I'll have magical children at that."

"Harry, you're probably the most powerful wizard in Britain. I know Richard's mother's Muggle so maybe that's got you concerned, but honestly, the odds have got to be really low that your children would be Squibs."

That earned him a soft smile from Harry who took down the picture of himself with Jessie and Jamie. "Do you know why Richard's mother is a Muggle?" he asked softly, turning to watch him closely.

"I just assumed you were living Muggle and fell in love with her?" Draco sounded completely puzzled by the question.

"Close. I met her because I was working as a teacher in a Muggle school, yeah. But I wasn't married to his mother, Draco. I was married to her brother. Jamie just agreed to be our surrogate, so the baby would have both our genes. The Muggles can manage that sort of thing with technology."

"Oh. You're gay then?"

Looking for any sign of repulsion and not finding any, Harry breathed a sigh of relief. He'd not wanted to ruin the burgeoning friendship with Draco. He hadn't seen the sort of prejudice in the wizarding world against homosexuality that he'd seen in the Muggle one, but he'd been known to miss pretty big cultural clues before. "Yeah. Women don't interest me in the least."

"So all the fuss about you and the youngest Weasley wasn't true?"

"I don't deny it was a bit of a shock, to realize she'd moved on, but it gave me a bit of a shove in the right direction at least," Harry admitted.

"Well, there's your angle with the widower piece then. Just give them a few happy wedding photos of you and your husband. That'll make them forget you ever dated a ginger girl who married someone else."

Harry laughed. "Distract them with the truth?"

"Of course. The female population will be so sympathetic toward you after that sort of thing that it'll be long forgotten."

Placing the photo back on the mantle, Harry mulled it over. "I'll look through photos this weekend then, to find ones I'm willing to share. Thanks, Draco."

"You're welcome." Still facing the family photo, Harry completely missed the blush creeping over his companion's fair skin and the other man's assessing gaze. Draco shifted and cleared his throat. "We should probably head down to dinner."

Lost in thought, Harry agreed.

_A/N:_

_On a general note, I'm opting, for the purposes of the story, to use the Black family tree and adopt Dorea Black-Potter as Harry's grandmother even though it's not a canon relationship. It suits the purposes of this story (and to me explains how a family as tied up in its own importance as the Black family managed to end up with Harry inheriting the fortune and property)._

_Sunset on Heartache: I'm glad you're still enjoying the story, and as noted above, I've posted at least some of my notes online to make the families and Hogwarts staff easier to sort out._

_Lupinesense: I'm glad you liked a mellower Snape. I don't like fics where he goes completely soft in personality, but I figure a man who survived the war, was exonerated and later married and had a child would be a lot less uptight than the double-agent who spent most of his life alone. I suspect our Draco has a few more facets of his personality to display too. The whole baby-scene was inspired by how I would be greeted by one branch of the family after my daughter was born. She was the first girl in about fifty years for them, and they'd pretty much just snatch her away and we didn't see her again unless she needed to nurse or we were leaving! lol_

_Lientjuhh, ElfOwl, and Pamela3265: Thank you! Glad you're enjoying the story!_


	7. Chapter 7

_Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JKR, of course. Just puttering about in her world._

"Harry!"

Hearing his voice called, Harry turned and smiled in greeting as Draco strode down the corridor to catch up to him. He'd just left his classroom, after his last class of the day. Today he'd sent Mr. Morgan to the caretaker for his Friday detention after the boy had continued his insolent behavior in the prior two detentions that week. He was looking forward to an evening away from the castle actually.

Casting a silencing spell around them, Draco fell into step beside Harry toward Slytherin Tower. "I'm glad I caught you. Something's come up with one of my Slytherins and Poppy and I have to have Wizarding Child Services in to review the case." The blond professor's expression promised dire things towards the parents of his snake if he had anything to say about it.

"Not a first year if they've hidden it two weeks into term, I hope?" Harry noted. Out of all the changes Severus had instituted as Headmaster, the absolute dedication to rooting out child abuse of the students was the one Harry supported the most. He didn't think a first year could sneak through the required physicals at the beginning of the year, but it took about three weeks to work through all the students beginning with the first years, and the scans didn't always pick up on less physical means of abuse.

Draco shook his head. "Fifth year. His father died last winter and seems like the mother's gotten unhinged in the meantime. He's the youngest and only one left at home, at least, so only one student to deal with but it'll likely take all evening." He sighed. "But I'd promised Louisa the night off for something. She's agreed to stay if need be, but didn't seem too happy about it."

"Want me to watch Allie then?"

"If you don't mind? I could try to track down one of the others, but she's most comfortable with you."

"That's because I don't guard every little thing I say not to remind her about magic," Harry said. "I'm happy to look after her, although I'd planned on attending a Weasley family dinner tonight at the Burrow. She's welcome along or I can cancel and do it some other time."

"She'll be okay going there. She's been now and then. Fleur's fostered a few of my Slytherins before actually." The Slytherin Head of House looked thoughtful. "Actually, if you don't mind, ask her if she's got room for one more. I think she'd be a good match for Alfred Kelly."

"Of course." Harry still found it somewhat amusing that while Fleur Delacour Weasley was about as physically opposite of Molly Weasley as could possibly be, she had turned out to be as motherly as the late matriarch had been. Although where Molly had reared her own brood and adopted just a few strays, Fleur had become a full time foster mother. There was rarely a time when she and Bill didn't have at least one foster child living at the Burrow in addition to their own children.

"Thanks, Harry. I'd better get back to the Infirmary before the boy thinks I've abandoned him to Poppy and Severus' care." With a smile in gratitude, Draco canceled the silencing spell and reversed direction down the corridor.

Harry stopped by his own quarters briefly to pick up extra nappies to add to the bag he'd packed for Richard when he'd dropped him by Draco's quarters with their shared nanny that morning. The dinner invitation had arrived at lunch, when Fleur had managed to secure promises from Ginny and Ernie they'd be there.

Stepping next door, he spoke the password quietly, but was shocked at the sound of yelling as soon as the portrait door swung inward. It was neither of the children, but the nanny whose voice was raised. Concerned, Harry stepped forward into the room. The nanny's next words made his blood run cold.

"You little squib, you've ruined my evening plans again! I don't know why I even keep this job. It's not like your father's ever going to be grateful to me for looking after you." The sheer loathing in the woman's voice made Harry want to vomit.

He'd heard enough, but before he could make his presence known, the woman drew back as if she intended to slap the little girl sitting at the table looking resigned. Harry didn't even think twice before he'd stunned the woman, feeling a sense of dark satisfaction that her head made a solid _thunk_ against the stone wall before she hit the floor.

Ignoring the nanny, he stepped over her to reach Allie, gathering the child into his arms. "Are you okay, love?" he asked, looking around for his son and finding the boy sitting solemnly with one of Allie's plushies, green eyes wide as he looked from the nanny to his father.

"S'okay," Allie mumbled against his robes, her voice subdued. "She had to cancel her date because of me."

"That's no reason for her to talk to you like that. None at all. And no reason for her to dare slap you either." He moved to the sofa with the child, pausing only to send a petrification spell at Louisa on the floor. He'd take no chances the woman would break free of the stunner while he was talking to Allie.

"But I'm an inconvenience."

"No child is an inconvenience," Harry said softly. He had the sinking feeling this wasn't the first time the nanny had berated the child, because her tone had held the flat sound his own had when he'd stated himself a freak in his childhood. He resisted the temptation to rise and give the woman a solid kick for her treatment of the sweet little girl. Tipping Allie's chin up with a finger, he made sure she met his gaze. "And you are a beautiful little girl anyone would be proud to call their own."

"Daddy says I'm beautiful." Tears were welling up in her grey eyes now, and Harry felt a surge of hope that the loving way Draco had treated the child would make the nanny's abusive behavior easier to overcome.

"Your daddy is absolutely right. It's your nanny who is a very bad woman." He hugged the now silently crying child close. "I'll make sure she never says bad things to you again." By removing her tongue, he thought darkly, knowing he wouldn't go that far with the woman, although Draco's family might. He wasn't sure who the woman would need to fear the most – Lucius or Narcissa – when this was reported.

When Allie's tears had subsided, Harry sat her gently on the sofa and wiped her tears with his handkerchief. Letting her keep the damp cloth, he transfigured one of Richard's spare nappies into a sling and lifted his son into it. He'd come back later for the rest of the baby's things. Lifting Allie onto his hip, he flicked his wand at the petrified woman, floating her behind him as he headed for the Infirmary.

If she managed to bump into a few walls "accidentally" on the way, he felt not a second's guilt. She deserved each and every bruise, and besides, his attention was on the children he carried, not some resentful bint who'd directed her resentment at a defenseless child. In timing he couldn't have had better if he'd tried, he met the representative from WCS in the corridor outside the Infirmary.

The woman raised a brow at the nanny, who had no obvious injury yet remained utterly frozen still.

"It seems you've two cases to investigate tonight, Mrs. Reid," Harry explained.

"Are the children okay?" she asked, her attention to the important matters immediately.

He nodded. "I think so."

At that, she opened the door to allow him to enter ahead of her and didn't comment when the nanny made another "accidental" bump of her hip into the door jamb on the way through. He figured she'd probably wanted to do that sort of thing a few times herself over the years, working a job like hers. He thumped the woman onto an empty bed just as Draco rounded the privacy curtains of a hospital bed.

"Harry? Is something wrong with Louisa?" he asked.

"I caught Louisa yelling at Allie. Before I could stop her, she tried to slap her." Taking a deep breath, Harry reminded himself to mind his language with the children right in his arms. "I did stop her before she managed that, but I'm not sure if she'd done it before."

The blond's expression warred between rage at the nanny and concern for his daughter. Concern won when Allie raised her head and turned, reaching out for her father. Taking her and going to sit on a bed, Draco cuddled the girl close while Harry strode forward to find Poppy. He suspected calming draughts might be in order, as well as physicals for both children. He hoped today had been the first time the woman had become physical with either child, but he knew words were as damaging if spoken often enough.

It took just under an hour for Allie to be questioned gently by Mrs. Reid. The older boy had instantly wished for the little one to be seen first when he'd realized what was going on. Once Louisa had realized she was well and truly caught in being abusive by Harry, she'd confessed easily and had been taken away by an Auror. Draco had reluctantly left his daughter to oversee the interview with Alfred Kelly, after Allie had quietly assured him she was happy to stay with Harry and Richard.

He found them when he was done, having a tea party of sorts in the far corner of the Infirmary. Harry had managed to bring Allie out of her shell with his antics at transfiguring items for their tea party, getting her into outright giggles when he'd made them all matching pink hats and feather boas. Richard was happy to play with the soft feathers, munching on one end of his boa as he sat with his hat lopsided. A house elf had been happy to provide actual tea and miniature sandwiches for the party.

"Is this a private tea party, or am I invited too?" Draco asked his daughter, shooting Harry a relieved look at how carefree Allie seemed to be.

"What do you think, love? Do we let your Daddy join us?" Harry asked her.

She tilted her head sideways to study her father, and then nodded. "He needs a hat and feathers."

With a grin, Harry transfigured the required items, resisting the urge to laugh at how silly the blond looked. Draco took the empty seat at the little table, doing his best to look dignified as he took a tiny sandwich and a cup of tea. After a bite or two, he studied his daughter, unable to stay completely playful. "I'm sorry, Allie," he said, voice cracking. "I didn't realize…"

The little girl shot out of her chair and flung herself into her father's lap, knocking her hat to the floor. His teacup spilt on the table, but Harry cleaned away the mess quietly. Allie hugged Draco tightly. "I know you didn't, Daddy. I should have told you."

The pain in the grey eyes that met Harry's over the girl's dark hair made Harry's heart ache. He felt equally guilty, because he'd never noticed anything off in the nanny's behavior either. They'd been so very lucky he'd not held that Friday detention as planned and shown up early to get the children.

"I want you to promise you'll tell me immediately if anything ever happens like this again, Allie. No matter whom it is."

She nodded. "Uncle Harry made me promise him too."

The pain ebbed as gratitude took its place, and Harry smiled. "Seemed a bit silly for her to keep calling me Mr. Potter at a tea party," he added. "But I think our tea isn't a real dinner so we should go find some."

Allie wriggled around to look at Harry. "Can we all have dinner together?" she asked hopefully. "Not in the Great Hall?"

"Oh Merlin. You had dinner plans, Harry," Draco said, looking abashed.

"I'm sure the Weasleys will understand." Harry began to return the transfigured items to their former state, gathering Richard into his arms. "I might even impress young Miss Alcyone there a bit further and cook dinner for us all if you like."

"Oh really? You can cook, Uncle Harry?" the girl asked, sounding intrigued by the thought. "No house elves?"

He nodded. "With and without magic."

Draco's agreement was a foregone conclusion as soon as Allie turned pleading grey eyes his way, and the walk back to Harry's quarters was passed with the girl quizzing Harry about what he could and couldn't cook. He set her to play with the baby with a promise he'd start teaching her to cook soon, and Draco followed him into the small kitchen alcove.

"I can't thank you enough," he said quietly.

"No thanks are necessary," Harry replied. "I just wish I'd done more than stun her and bump her into a few walls."

"I'm scared to hire someone else. What if they turn out to resent her too?"

Harry paused in pulling items out of the cold cabinet and nodded. "Maybe you should consider a house elf," he suggested. "At least then you know she's safe from anything like that, and honestly, I think having a nanny just makes it more obvious to everyone that she's different than the other young children."

The other man sank into a chair at the table and looked thoughtful. "You're right. I'll ask Mother to send over the elf who cared for me as a child."

"Good." Harry flashed him a reassuring smile. "Now get off your lazy backside and help me chop vegetables for dinner. Allie likes carrots, right?"

Laughing, Draco rose to help, and Harry felt a surge of satisfaction. As horrifying as finding out how the nanny was treating Allie had been, he'd helped put an end to it and the children would be safer than safe now, under the dedicated care of a family elf.

And Merlin help anyone else who hurt either Allie or Richard. Harry was utterly in love with the little girl, and anyone else who mistreated her would find themselves getting more than a stunner from Uncle Harry.

_A/N:_

_Lientjuhh: I've been deliberately vague in the story before and caused some confusion here. Jessie and Jamie are siblings mentioned in the photo in Chapter two, and both mentioned as dead. You're correct that they died in the same car crash. To clarify, Jessie is the brother, Jamie the sister. I chose (American) unisex names just for the ambiguity in the early chapters._

_Sunset on Heartache: I'm glad I surprised you! It makes the whole "jilted lover" issue even more complex, although my version of Harry was once attracted to Ginny because she was quite a tomboy, so he wasn't completely confused in dating her._

_Lupinesence: I'm glad you feel sorry for Ginny and Ernie. I was afraid people would be anti-Ginny as the story played out since she moved on to Ernie, but I see that as fairly natural when Ginny realized something was "off" about her relationship with Harry prior to him breaking things off for her safety. Then she's enduring that year with the Carrows at Hogwarts, and I figure that causes strong bonds to form. Ernie was fairly loyal to Harry and likely to be part of the resistance so I feel that might lead to an unexpected romance._

_Emotive Gothika: I'm glad you guessed correctly! It's always fun to find out I laid enough clues._

_Avery Athena Black: I always like older Draco and Harry. I think they had too many factors against them in their school years for me to personally write a good Drarry set then, but all grown up with years of maturity, I can see a lot of ways they could become a couple. I'm glad you enjoy this version._

_Dark Neko 4000: Well, as for what's next, you're seeing the beginnings of the family bonds forming, since I see both men as fathers first, becoming lovers second. I think they'll get closer to open attraction in the next chapter, and there are a few plot points yet to come._


	8. Chapter 8

_Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JKR, of course. Just puttering about in her world._

_A/N: Sorry for the delay. Normally I'm a chapter ahead but I got behind with some RL issues cropping up. While hopefully readers realize this is a M/M slash story long before now, I will say that I likely won't get graphic with sex scenes between our guys. It's not any sort of prudishness, but more the fact that I do feel the family/emotional aspect to be more important than the physical aspect of the relationship. The next chapter or two will lay out a bit of the past the guys need to overcome, as well as the potential future complications of being a same sex couple while being Heads of prominent wizarding families (or future Heads, in Draco's case). Harry's had time to heal from most of his childhood damage thanks to his American family, but our Draco has adulthood wounds to deal with yet.  
><em>

Harry stretched sleepily in bed, glad he'd added the quilt to the normal thin blanket he used. With October now arrived, it wouldn't be long before he'd need a nice, thick duvet as well, and to start keeping the fireplaces lit. He rolled and checked the bauble that worked as a monitoring charm for Richard and noted the baby was wake but content to play with one of his soft plushies. He tended to like soft toys, abandoning the harder ones he'd been given in favor of the small army of plushies Harry suspected half-belonged to Allie.

The little girl had spent a lot of time with Harry and Richard, with and without her father (or house elf). She seemed content with the elf, Sadie, but wheedled her father into dropping her by Uncle Harry's anytime he had rounds or Head of House duties when Harry wasn't busy. Harry loved having her around, although he had to admit to himself that he was enjoying her father's company as well. Draco made a point of visiting for a half hour or so each time he picked up Allie, and Harry had cooked dinner for the four of them more than once.

Hearing a knock at the door, Harry threw the bedcovers back and reached for his dressing gown. Even though it was extremely early for a Saturday, it might be a student at the door and it wouldn't do for him to answer wearing nothing but pajama bottoms.

"Oh, hi." He flashed Draco a smile and looked for Allie, but the blond was alone. "Did you need something?"

"I hate to ask you to watch her again, but I don't like leaving her alone with just an elf so much." Draco's expression was apologetic, and Harry motioned him to step into his quarters.

"I told you I was happy for her to come over any time you like. I'd planned on a trip to Diagon Alley this morning for some things for Richard, but I figure Allie would enjoy the baby shop. We can have lunch and get ice cream."

Looking relieved, Draco smiled. "I knew Severus would watch her, but she always seems happier here. Not so solemn."

Harry chuckled. "That's what having a jolly uncle around is for. Keep smiles on little girls' faces." He stepped into the kitchen alcove. "Got time for breakfast? We can tell Sadie to wake Allie and bring her over." Regardless of answer, he began assembling items for breakfast, letting his dressing gown slide open.

"Breakfast sounds brilliant, actually." Draco called for Sadie, relaying instructions, and the neat little elf popped away.

Cracking eggs into the pan, Harry turned his attention next to flicking pieces of nicely-browned toast into the rack before rummaging in the cold cabinet for jam. "Blueberry or strawberry?" he asked, turning with both jars in his hand.

Draco didn't answer immediately and Harry was puzzled for a brief moment until he realized the blond was staring quite openly at his chest, laid bare by the loose dressing gown. The admiration was unexpected, as Harry hadn't seen any indication the other man was interested in men. He knew he was in good shape – Merlin knew being married to a sport nutritionist had kept him that way and he'd not lost the eating and exercise habits even ten months after Jessie's death.

"Draco? If you're considering me for the jam instead of the toast, we'd have to work that out later," he said, opting for a teasing flirtation rather than simply ignore the other man's interest. As the blond's skin became tinged with a rather appealing blush, Harry plunked both jars down on the table and returned to his eggs.

"Sorry, Harry."

Harry glanced over his shoulder as the other man plunked gracelessly in his chair, seeming torn between watching him work and studying the floor to hide his embarrassment.

"No need to apologize." Satisfied that his charm was doing well by the eggs, Harry started up the bacon before turning back to face Draco. He'd best sort this out now and figure out what was going on, or it might damage their friendship.

Opting for boldness, he moved to stand in front of Draco, tipping his chin to make the blond look up at him. "Curiosity or interest?" he asked, going for bluntness.

Grey eyes widened, but Draco's pale skin still retained the rosiness from blushing. He cleared his throat before answering huskily, "Both."

Stroking the other man's chin, he heard the door open to admit Allie and likely her house elf. "Later," he promised. He closed his dressing gown and made sure to it was tied properly before turning back to the cooker to finish up breakfast. Part of him felt a twinge of guilt at the flirtation, but he knew Jessie wouldn't expect him to be celibate forever.

"Perfect timing, Allie," Harry greeted the little girl as she came into sight. He scooped eggs and bacon onto plates and brought them to the table, following with the toast rack. "Sadie? Can you fetch Richard?" he asked the house elf, who grinned happily at the thought of the baby and disappeared.

As they settled into breakfast, Harry remembered he'd not asked Draco about why he needed a babysitter. "Will you be busy all day?"

The blond shook his head. "I've a meeting with my parents at Gringotts to settle what we can of Allie's inheritance. Father's found a school in Buckinghamshire we've got an appointment to tour next weekend. It's supposed to be one of the best Muggle girls' schools." He looked thoughtful. "I know it's a lot to ask of you, but perhaps you might like to come along?"

"I'd be happy to, although my experience with British schools is limited to my primary school and Hogwarts. The American system's rather different. Not many boarding schools either."

"I'd rather she not go to boarding school, but it'd be rather hard to explain how she gets back and forth since none of the family's well-versed with Muggle transport."

"You could buy a home or flat in a city with an acceptable school. Floo from here to the place you tell the school you live in, then walk her over or she can learn to use public transport. That's what I was considering doing for Richard, if I don't have a suitable tutor by the time he's ready for primary school. I don't want him away for long periods of time that young."

"That's an excellent idea. Sending her off to a Muggle school seems a bit like tossing her in the ocean without being able to swim. But you'll still attend the tour with us?" He reached out to stop Allie from her attempt to put half the jar of jam on one piece of toast.

"Happy to. Can't have my favorite girl going off somewhere we haven't explored completely." Harry flashed Allie a warm smile, which she returned happily. She didn't seem concerned with the conversation about her future, and he figured she'd heard plenty of those as her family tried to plan for all eventualities. "Perhaps she and I can start sorting out Muggle transport today, if you don't mind. I'd planned on just Diagon Alley, but we can go exploring in London a bit."

"That sounds fine, if you don't mind. Perhaps you can take her to one of those food places the Weasleys go on about." A buzzing sounded and Draco startled for a moment, and then laughed. Pushing his chair back, he thanked Harry for breakfast and kissed Allie atop her head. "I'm running late."

"I'll see you tonight, yeah?" Harry asked.

Draco nodded, his blush from earlier returning just enough to tinge the tips of his ears. Without another word, he headed for the door, leaving Harry to plan his day with the kids.

* * *

><p>Realizing he hadn't heard Allie's matter-of-fact chatter to Richard in a few minutes, Harry went to his son's room. The scene was rather endearing, finding Draco's dark-haired daughter curled up protectively around his pale-haired son, both sound asleep in the boy's small bed. They'd had a good day in Muggle London, visiting a chain restaurant Harry had wanted to try and getting in a bit of shopping. She'd been delighted with the new food and had talked him into bringing takeaway so her father could sample it for dinner. He'd spoilt her a bit when they'd stopped by the toy shop, but he found it fun to buy things for a little girl, and her fascination with the Muggle toys had wrapped him firmly around her little finger.<p>

Hearing Draco call out, he covered the children with a blanket and headed back to the living room to greet the other wizard. "How'd it go at Gringotts?"

Settling onto the sofa, the blond eyed the shopping bags curiously but answered the question. "We got it settled that, witch or not, Allie gets a property in Highgate and another in Greece. Both are in highly Muggle areas and can be easily converted to Muggle if necessary for her, but let her still have a Floo."

"Highgate? I think there's some sort of high-end school there too that you might look into, especially if you already own property there. Not sure if it allows girls, but it's likely they do now. I'll bet Hermione would know, since she grew up in Clerkenwell."

"I'll check in with her then." He indicated the shopping bags. "Dare I ask what Hamleys is?"

Harry grinned impishly. "Our children's new favorite place in the entire world. Even Richard was enthralled when we walked through the doors." He reached for one of the bags, beginning to sort out the toys and presenting Draco with a hot pink box containing a slender blonde doll. "Allie discovered Barbies today."

The other man looked puzzled, inspecting the box and turning it around to read the adverts printed on it. "Muggle dolls are strange," he said at last.

Chuckling, Harry nodded. "You've no idea. And Barbie has accessories too." Out came a box containing a pink convertible car and after an enlarging charm, a two story doll house, followed by several packages of clothing for the doll. "I figured if she ends up in a Muggle school, she'll fit in better if she knows what types of toys girls obsess over. If I can remember what these are, and I'm male, then I figured it was a good place to start."

"You didn't have to do all this." Draco seemed at a loss for words.

"I wanted to. The toy store was a bit of a last minute thought, since I wanted to get a treat for both the kids. I may have gone a little overboard." A box of brightly colored Legos joined the doll's things. "These are for her to take home. I got a bunch of games and puzzles and stuff to keep over here, which Richard will be old enough for eventually."

Grey eyes met now-anxious green ones as Harry thought he might have overstepped in wanting to spoil Allie as much as Richard. "Thank you, Harry. This is the sort of thing she needs, that I don't think about. So she'll fit in properly."

Relieved, Harry sank to the sofa next to Draco. "What's the point of having a near-Muggle uncle if I can't keep her sorted out?" he quipped.

"You really are fond of my daughter." The intent interest of the morning had returned to Draco's expression, although Harry thought it was less physical in nature right now.

"Honestly, Draco, she's the sweetest kid I've ever been around." He closed the gap between himself and the other man slowly. "I suspect I'm becoming rather fond of her father too." The invitation was obvious, he hoped.

Apparently it was, because Draco's lips met his hesitantly. Thrilled at the contact, Harry slid his hand into the silky hair at the nape of the blond's neck and slid his tongue along Draco's bottom lip, seeking entrance. As soon as it was granted, he deepened the kiss, encouraged as Draco's hands sought his chest, exploring his contours beneath the light jumper he wore. Harry couldn't help his half-smile when they finally parted, moving to nuzzle at the soft skin of Draco's throat.

Draco groaned, pushing at Harry and breaking the contact. "Harry, I can't if this is just a one-off," he managed. "I have to be careful with Allie around."

That worry just endeared him further to Harry. "Have I ever struck you as the type to simply want to get off and have no further ties?" A quick jerk of the blond's head relieved his budding worry he'd somehow managed to make the other man think so poorly of him. "I adore Allie, and I'd like to see where this," he motioned between them, "might go."

"I've never been with another man."

"I'm not going to rush things, Draco. Kissing me tonight doesn't mean you've got to shag me immediately," Harry said softly. "Or ever, if you decide you don't want to cross that line."

"It's been a long time since I slept with anyone. Too many want to sleep with a Malfoy, not me personally. Hoping for a ring and the money," Draco admitted.

"Well, I've money of my own, and we can't legally marry in Britain so you're safe on both counts with me. And I much prefer if we leave our famous surnames at the bedroom door." Harry ran a gentle hand down Draco's robe-clad chest. "Call me Potter or mention my scar in bed and I might hex you."

Draco took a deep breath, his eyes darkening with the slow movements of Harry's hand. "I'd like to see where this goes then."

The husky admission was all Harry needed to close the gap between them again, seeking the sweetness of the other man's mouth. The children would be up from their nap soon enough, but in the meantime, he was going to set out to sweetly lay the path to seducing his very own dragon.

For the first time since the horrible winter night when he'd been called to the hospital to learn he was a widower and a father at the same time, he felt truly alive.

_A/N:_

_RRW: Harry's husband died in the same car crash that killed his sister, who was the surrogate for baby Richard. Glad you like it!_

_Lientjuhh & ElfOwl: I'm very happy you're still enjoying the story. It's lovely to see steady readers around._

_Lupinesence: Originally the nanny was supposed to stick around longer, but the naughty girl fouled out early. I couldn't resist the tea party. Harry always struck me as the type of father/uncle who would play along quite well with little girls and their dress up._

_emosniperwolf & drmami: I hope this chapter lives up to your enjoyment of the others. :)_

_Silvermane1: Thanks!_

RRW


	9. Chapter 9

_Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JKR, of course. Just puttering about in her world._

Marking essays had to be the worst part of being a professor, Harry reasoned. He missed the quick multiple-choice or true-false tests of his science classes in the Muggle world. Although that thought gave him an idea for the Muggle Studies side of things. Some of those students might go on to seek Muggle uni degrees on top of wizarding apprenticeships, and Merlin knew there were a variety of homework types at a uni beyond essays.

Other than that, he truly enjoyed the Cultural Studies position. With Draco at hand, he was able to fill in gaps in his own knowledge on the wizarding side, and it was a joy to see wizarding raised children finally grasp concepts such as computer use and the purpose of mobiles. If the spells necessary to use electronics within a heavily-magical place like Hogwarts weren't so complex, he suspected the castle would be plagued with mobile-carrying teenagers like any other school. As it was, he had to take the time at the end of the day to renew the protective spells, and once a week he went over the solar panels mounted outside each of his classroom window to ensure they fed into the classroom's electrical system properly.

Putting aside the fifth year assignment on the Muggle educational system, Harry stretched and checked the time. Draco should be back from rounds soon, and that made the dark-haired wizard smile. It had been two weeks since that first heady night of kisses on the sofa, and he'd set a slow pace that was driving him slowly crazy. But he didn't want to rush the other man into his bed, so instead he'd held himself to lingering kisses and gentle massages. It had taken him months to work up the courage to sleep with his college boyfriend, and while the relationship had ended amicably as post-college life took them in different directions, Harry had often wished he'd waited for such intimacy and had that first experience with Jessie.

He checked on the children, too restless to stay seated and smiled gently as he saw the two sleeping. With Draco's Head of House duties, Allie had fallen asleep sharing Richard's small bed several times before Harry had simply requested the house elves to add another bed to his son's room. Most nine year olds would have hated to essentially share a room with an infant, but she seemed to delight in being around the baby. He wondered if Allie saw Richard's deafness as making him the odd one out much like herself due to her lack of magical ability. If things went badly with Draco, it would break his heart not to be around the little girl daily as he was now.

Nodding to Sadie where she half-dozed in a little chair in the room, Harry made his way back to the living room just as Draco entered. He cupped the other man's face in his hands and kissed him in greeting, delighting that the kiss was returned with enthusiasm.

"Catch any miscreants tonight?" he asked when they finally came up for air.

Draco laughed. "No less than four couples being less than prudent about where they carried on with each other. At least they were all fifth years and up tonight."

Leading the blond to the sofa and helping him shrug out of his teaching robes, Harry grinned. "I'm still disturbed about the third years I came across snogging the life out of each other. At that age, I was too petrified to hold a girl's hand, much less snog her."

"Don't tell me you were shy? I always figured you and Hermione had practiced with each other, as close as you seemed."

Drawing the blond close, Harry shook his head. "The only girls I ever kissed at Hogwarts were Cho Chang fifth year and Ginny sixth year. That year we'd spent on the run, looking for Horcruxes, Hermione and I were together in really close quarters almost constantly. Even when Ron was gone, there just wasn't that sort of attraction between us."

"Maybe because you're gay? You said you didn't realize it truly until you were attending uni."

"Possibly. Although I suspect I'd never have been attracted to Hermione even if I found women arousing. We were so close so young, she's always been my sister in all but name."

"Makes sense, I suppose. I was rather relieved when my father didn't try to make a marriage alliance with any of the girls I grew up with. It would have felt a bit unsavory to bed a woman I'd once played with while we were in nappies."

Harry stroked Draco's arm, fingers exploring the bare skin. He liked it when the other man wore muggle clothing under his robes, since it left skin bare to explore without pressing the issue. "He told me at dinner after the school tour that he worried any British witch might be too closely related to you."

"Purebloods never advertised the number of miscarriages and stillbirths they had, not to mention the Squibs. It would have been admitting something was wrong with all the intermarriages," Draco said. "He thought himself very lucky to find a woman who had a Scandinavian father and Spanish mother. Plenty of fresh genetics, he thought. He blames himself for Allie being a Squib, you know."

"I'd noticed. He loves her though. I don't think I've seen a more devoted grandfather." After Lucius had turned traitor at the end of the war to save his family, it didn't surprise Harry that the Malfoy patriarch was utterly dedicated to finding the best future for his only grandchild.

"Honestly, you'd have thought she was his, when she was first born. There hasn't been a girl born alive into the Malfoy family in five generations. And Mother still buys out half the dress shops in Diagon Alley."

"What about her mother? No one ever seems to mention her." Harry had tried to question Severus discretely about Draco's late wife, but the older wizard's negative reaction had convinced him quickly to wait on the information to come from Draco himself.

It took so long for Draco to answer that Harry began to think he'd offended him. "Tilda was disappointed Allie was a girl and wanted very little to do with her. Ironic as she could have asked for the moon from my father and gotten it. She miscarried once about three years after Allie, and it seemed to make her extremely resentful of Allie. She accused me of not having a proper interest in a wife, to give her children. We were never close, so I let her leave and was looking for a way to break the marriage contract when she died."

Harry pressed a kiss to the top of Draco's head, feeling horrible for bringing up obviously bad memories. "She missed out on something amazing, leaving you and Allie."

Draco turned in his arms to claim a kiss, so obviously seeking reassurance of being wanted that Harry wished his wife were still alive so he could hex the woman silly. Pushing aside the thought of the snobby witch, he slipped his hands underneath the thin material of Draco's shirt, feeling a stab of guilt as his fingers found the scars that caused gaps in the soft hair that trailed down the center of the blond's chest. He'd caused those scars with his curse sixth year and promised himself now that he'd kiss every last inch of them.

He was surprised when Draco pulled away from the kiss, not to speak again, but to reach for the hem of Harry's own t-shirt, tugging it up. He let the other man tug the garment off, green eyes questioning. They'd thus far kept clothing on, removing temptation.

"Tonight I'm staying," Draco said softly, grey eyes darkened to near black with need as his fingers sought the soft, dark hair on Harry's chest.

Nodding because he'd suddenly lost the capability to speak, Harry rose from the sofa, tugging Draco up and leading him to the bedroom.

* * *

><p>Harry woke to the very welcome feeling of being a pillow to his lover. He smiled, playing with the strands of blond hair that made such a contrast to his own tanned skin. He'd never been the more experienced lover in the relationship, not even with Jessie, and last night had rewarded his patience in waiting for Draco to signal when he was ready. He'd fulfilled his promise to himself to kiss the length of every scar he'd left on the other man with his curse sixth year, which had driven any shyness far from Draco's mind about bedding him.<p>

"I could get used to waking up like this."

The drowsy comment made Harry smile. "I hope you intend to. I'm not sure I can go back to letting you go back to your quarters every night."

"I'm not sure I could manage walking back either." Draco raised his head and studied Harry before smiling slowly. "If it weren't for the children, I'd wish we figured out how this would be back in school."

Harry agreed, other than the joy he'd had in his marriage to Jessie. So many of the wounds he'd carried from his neglectful, abusive childhood and then the chaos of his years at Hogwarts had been healed by the unconditional love he'd had from his husband. "We both needed to grow up a lot, for this to be possible between us."

"True." Draco claimed a kiss, nipping lightly at Harry's bottom lip. "We'll have to talk to Severus, if I'm to move in. Or it might be better for you to move into my quarters. Less confusion for the students in my House."

"I don't mind moving over, if you're sure you want to go that far," Harry said. "Are you sure you're ready to go public? It's going to raise media interest, you know."

Draco shrugged. "I could care less what the newspapers say. Our families will accept it and be happy for us."

"Even your father? I know he likes me now, but there's a world of difference in accepting me as your friend and Allie's 'uncle' and knowing we're a couple."

The blush that Harry found so endearing appeared to color Draco's face. "I spoke to him last week, actually, when Allie and I had dinner with him and Mother." He dropped his head and nuzzled at Harry's bare chest. "He told me he'd already meddled with my life enough, and he didn't intend to ever do so again."

Harry couldn't help feeling a little shocked. Even knowing how diligently Lucius had searched for a way for his granddaughter to be the Malfoy Heir, he was surprised he'd easily accept his only son being in a same-sex relationship that would seemingly complicate the possibility of more children. "And what did your mother think?"

"She stated that if we remained serious about the relationship, she expects you to allow her to spoil Richard as endlessly as she does Allie."

"Why do I have a feeling we should ask Severus to just link the two quarters together so the children can have an entire room just for their wardrobes?" Harry asked in amusement, feeling rather relieved at what appeared to be a very easy acceptance from his lover's parents.

"Because you've seen Allie's wardrobe and you're a clever man?" Draco laughed, sitting up in bed and running a hand through his hair. "I think they'd figured it was headed this way between us, after we went on the school tour with them."

As Draco appropriated Harry's dressing gown for a trip to the loo, Harry lay in bed staring at the ceiling thoughtfully. He knew some might see them as moving their relationship too swiftly, considering they'd moved beyond friendship only recently. But there were few secrets between them after straightening out a few misunderstandings since he'd returned to Britain. The near-stalker behavior they'd had in their rivalry had ensured they'd know more about each other than the average couple had starting out.

Allie would be overjoyed if they shared quarters. Richard seemed content around Draco and adored Allie. With his concern about the elder Malfoys set to rest, the only potential objection that meant anything was Severus, and Harry began to suspect the older wizard had seen the possibility this would come to pass. He'd certainly made plenty of opportunities for them to spend time together, including a suspicious lack of scheduled times to supervise dinner in the Great Hall the last month or so.

He was distracted from that train of thought by Draco's return. The blond checked the monitoring charm on the children's room and Harry's gaze followed. Both offspring were sleeping contentedly, and the sound of his dressing gown hitting the floor drew Harry's attention back to Draco. They had an hour or two before the children or the outside world would intrude, and with a welcoming grin, he tugged his lover back into bed.

_A/N:_

_WL Chastain: Aw man, you really made me have some wonderfully cute mental images about the Barbies! I could see Severus creating the Barbie potions lab – but I also got this flash of him trying to deal patiently with those darn little plastic shoes. Much giggling ensued._

_ElfOwl: I don't mind lemons, but I agree that Drarry is probably dominated by them moreso than most of the other pairings. My idea with this particular fic comes partly from a blind friend (whom I've mentioned in a prior chapter's A/N) and his comments on how off-putting and vulgar sex scenes on television sound when you don't get the visuals. I spent some time listening instead of watching and realized just how much of the loveliness of a good love scene is in the foreplay – not the sex – and decided that's where I wanted the details to lie with this story._

_RRW: I'd have dropped her in the Lake, personally, and let the Squid have a snack, as I agree about the child abuse. It always bothered me that what happened to Harry as a child was never treated as the abuse it truly was. That's an interesting thought about Harry being always the student. I'd not thought about it quite like that in planning out the fic, but I like your thoughts on the turnabout._

_PyroFyre1214: If half-naked Harry hadn't woken Draco up to being gay, he'd have been a lost cause, eh? _

_Sunset on Heartache: I always thought Harry would be the type to spoil those that he loved, sort of being sure he was always the opposite of the Dursleys. _

_xxxxParvati-Patilxxxx & Silvermane1: I'm glad you're enjoying it!_

_Lupinesence: They are having a bit of a backwards way of doing things, but to be expected when one starts dating a coworker when you live at your place of work, I suppose. I thought about drawing things out more between them, but as Harry mulls over, they don't have all the getting to know each other stages most couples engage in._

_Avery Athena Black: Allie is one of my favorite parts of the story, and I'm actually torn on how her future will play out. I suspect I'll stick with my original outline for the plot and she'll keep being significant, as will her love of baby Richard. _


	10. Chapter 10

_Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JKR, of course. Just puttering about in her world._

Harry released his first year Muggle Studies students five minutes early when the Headmaster appeared in the classroom doorway. He knew Severus wouldn't mind waiting, as it wasn't unusual for him to pop in and observe a class for any of the professors, but with the Halloween weekend approaching, the children had been terribly restless without additional distraction. The only child who didn't stir was Allie, who sat at one of the classroom's ten computers with headphones on.

Once the last student had flowed out of the room, off to lunch and with only one lesson after that before the weekend, Severus indicated where Allie still worked, fingers steadily typing on the keyboard. "I take it the students don't seem to mind a younger child among them?"

"They're actually more tolerant of her than some of the Muggleborn children actually."

"Any more trouble with Mr. Morgan?"

Shaking his head, Harry leaned moved around tidying the classroom for the afternoon's double Muggle Studies for fourth years. "I don't think he's changed his opinion on the subject, but he's learned to keep his mouth shut at least."

"Sometimes that's all we can hope for. If it happens again, we'll have to be far sterner with him."

Harry shrugged. He didn't personally care if Severus expelled the little brat. Just because Hogwarts was the most preeminent school for magic in Britain didn't mean it was the only one.

"What is she working on so diligently?"

"A computer program that teaches typing. I owl-ordered a few things for younger children, but I think the first years would like to try that one out. It's more entertaining than theirs is."

"Test out which has better results. Being wizard-raised children, I doubt they'll even care it's a program for younger children. We can switch to that one next year if it works out better."

Nodding, Harry decided to take advantage of Allie's activity to question Severus about her status. "How sure are we that Allie's a Squib?" he asked softly.

The sigh from the Headmaster was heartfelt. "As you recall from Neville's childhood tales, most children show magical ability by her age, even if it's just something simple like levitating a toy that's out of reach. She can't activate magical toys that draw off a child's inherent abilities, such as toy brooms. If she weren't from one of the oldest families, those guaranteed a place at Hogwarts, not getting a Hogwarts letter could simply mean she doesn't possess enough magic to qualify for the school."

"You have to qualify? But I was told my name was down for Hogwarts from the time I was born." Harry looked puzzled. "I always wondered how I could be told that, if you can't simply look up whether or not Allie's on the list."

"I'd imagine that was one of the old man's many exaggerations, although to be honest, as a Potter, the only thing that would have prevented you from attending Hogwarts would have been if you'd been unable to use a wand. No one's entirely certain how the Hogwarts enrollment book works, only that the magics are as old as the school itself."

"So the Muggleborn students are all more powerful students, on average?"

"It varies. One quarter of each year's new student openings must be reserved for Muggleborn children. Of the remainder, Ancient and Most Noble Houses are the first selected, and then those of any family who has had at least five generations attend Hogwarts. After those spots are filled, then children are selected by ability from strongest to weakest."

"And how many get turned away on average?"

"For every forty students we take each year, there are usually anywhere from fifty to one hundred children we don't have room for. As there are three other schools here in Britain, it's not worrisome. Although if not for the tradition for the oldest wizarding families always attending Hogwarts, I would prefer Hogwarts go by ability alone, regardless of birthright. There are far fewer true branches of the old families now, so it has become less of a factor aside from the Muggleborn quota."

"I never did feel it was really fair on some like Goyle to have to struggle along." Harry watched as Allie's program ended, figuring he'd best wrap it up. "So if Allie gets a letter, then we know she's at least got some hidden magical talent, but if she doesn't, she's a Squib and we move forward on the Muggle schooling plans."

"She's gained a strong advocate in you, I see."

Harry smiled up at Severus. "Which I suspect you planned on, what with putting me next door to Draco's quarters and all."

"I will admit it did cross my mind that you would be good for her." Dark eyes met green, some of the intensity Harry remembered from his school years present in Severus' gaze. "I am very pleased that you have turned out to be good for both of them."

Keeping his voice low as Allie tidied away her headphones, Harry asked a question that had plagued him. "And were you playing matchmaker as well?"

"I suspected Draco's inclinations weren't toward women but he'd been conditioned all his life to marry and produce an heir. He'd have never acted on such impulses before his marriage. I'm pleasantly surprised with how far he and Lucius have come that he feels free to do so now."

Harry nodded. "Not that I'm complaining."

Then his attention had to leave Severus for Allie as the little girl came to join them. "Ready for lunch, sweetheart?" he asked.

She took his hand after giving the Headmaster a sunny smile. "Sadie's going to meet us there with Richard, right?"

"I'm sure they're already there waiting for us," he told her and let her lead the way toward the Great Hall. Severus was quiet beside him, and Harry wondered if he was considering Allie's future as deeply as he was.

* * *

><p>Harry had the subject of magical inheritance lurking at the back of his mind through his afternoon class and into the evening. His quietness was noted by Draco, although the other man didn't remark upon it until the children had been tucked into bed for the night.<p>

"Something on your mind, Harry?"

"I was thinking about Allie, and what happens if she doesn't get to attend Hogwarts."

"Well, we've got almost two years to worry about that. I'd figured we'd secure her a spot in a good school, just in case. With her birthday at the end of July, we'd have a month to cancel the Muggle spot if she got a letter."

That caught Harry's attention, as he realized he'd overlooked a rather important bit of information about Allie. "When exactly in July?"

Draco grinned, snuggling close to the other man. "She shares your birthday, actually, although if she'd been born an hour earlier she'd share Neville's."

"I can't believe you didn't tell me that earlier. Or somebody didn't."

"I'm glad you're happy about it. Imagine when all your birthday cakes are pink or sport flowers, because she wants to share a cake with you."

Harry's grin was possibly wider than Draco's. "I don't mind a bit. If it makes her happy, I'll eat nothing but pink birthday cake from now on."

"You know, you're almost as besotted as my father by my child."

"If anyone had told me I'd be proud of sharing a trait with your father twelve years ago, I'd have thought them completely barmy, you know."

"Strange to realize you do have traits in common, isn't it? Although I suppose they lead back to the same one, adoring one's family."

"I always thought you'd have some sort of cold, remote upbringing."

"Not in the least. Oh, appearances were highly important and you'd never have seen my parents show affection in any manner they felt was undignified when I was a child, but it was always there." The blond fiddled with Harry's fingers, seeming to compare his long, pale fingers to Harry's shorter, more work-roughened ones.

"I noticed that even after the Battle. Other families were clinging to each other as if they'd never let go, yet you three were rather dignified despite the grime on everyone. Although I did notice that your mother didn't let go of either of you in her sly little ways of keeping you linked together."

"I suspect if you hadn't intervened, that pair of Aurors would have had to do bodily harm to her to have taken either of us away that day." Draco flicked his wand out of the wand holster, studying the hawthorn's polished surface. "She was the only one who had a wand at that point, at least one that worked properly. And then you came striding over to _thank_ me so profusely for the use of my wand and returned it."

Harry chuckled. "I think the Aurors nearly died of shock to realize I'd used your wand to defeat Voldemort."

"Implying I'd cooperated in that somehow was rather Slytherin of you."

"I owed both you and your mother directly, and your father indirectly. You could have identified me at your manor. Your mother could have alerted Voldemort I was still alive. Your father could have led Severus to Voldemort and perhaps he would have died then, all things considered. I might not have figured everything out in time. So, no matter what the intentions were for any of you, I couldn't see you carted off to Azkaban, even if only until trial."

"We were lucky you survived. Only Mother would have managed to stay out of Azkaban otherwise."

"Possibly." Harry hesitated, unsure if the other man knew. "I was told after the Battle that I could ask any boon I wanted of the Minister and he'd grant it. I asked him to ensure you remained free, since I knew Severus was safe."

Draco twisted to meet his lover's gaze. "Aside from gratitude for wand or not identifying you, why would you use that sort of power to save _me_?"

"At the time, I wasn't really sure, other than I didn't want you to suffer any further from trying to save your mother's life and your own. Merlin, Draco, if I'd had the same chance, to save my mum, I can't say I wouldn't have made the same damned choices you did."

"Well, indirectly you saved Father too. The Minister figured a long house-arrest was preferable after you vaunted my mother a hero."

Harry's thumb stroked the silvery pale remainder of Draco's Dark Mark. "Does it bother you, to still wear this?" he asked softly.

Draco shuddered, trying to pull his forearm away. He'd done his best since they'd first slept together to keep Harry away from the faded Mark. "I loathe having it. I try to see it as penance, like Severus does, but it doesn't work that way for me."

"And if I told you it could be removed?"

"I'd call you a liar, if you were anyone else. But you've pulled off miracles before."

Smiling, Harry brought Draco's forearm to his lips, kissing the ugly remnant of desperately made choices. "I've offered to remove Severus', after I came across information how to do so when I was in America. This sort of linked mark is used over there, not for the abhorrent things Voldemort chose, but as part of a marriage bonding ritual."

Wide grey eyes held a glimmer of hope. "So you know the reversing charm?"

Harry nodded. "Divorce isn't as rare among wizards there as it is here, so being able to remove the marriage marks is important. Severus let me study the magic left in his Mark to determine how similar they are, but he wouldn't allow me to remove it."

"Do you have one of those sort of marks?" Draco frowned, making his lover smile to realize he was probably trying to catalog every inch of skin he'd seen on Harry. Harry had a magical ouroboros tattoo encircling one ankle, but no others.

"No. I looked into it, when Jessie and I got married, but it wouldn't have worked properly on a Muggle. Like the Dark Mark, the marriage marks tap into a person's magic. My ouroboros is magical, obviously, with the color changing it does. I could have spelled that same tattoo onto Jessie and it would have simply been a fancy looking bit of ink work."

"Are you sure you can remove it?"

Rather than reply, Harry reached for his wand. The removal charm was complex, not something he'd attempt wandlessly. As sweat prickled his forehead, he threw a bit more power into forcing the ugly mark to not just fade away, but remove every last trace from Draco's skin. In theory, he'd surmised anyone could remove the Dark Mark, with its maker well and truly dead. In reality, he was finding that apparently some of the power level used to inflict it was required to remove it.

"It's gone." Draco sounded so awestruck Harry couldn't help but smile. "Merlin, I could feel your power washing over my skin."

"Yeah?"

Draco nodded. His grey eyes were as dark as when he was aroused, and Harry realized he just might be. He'd noticed close displays of Draco's power often made his body very much aware of the other man, more so the longer they were together. Placing a tender kiss over the milky-pale, unmarked skin, Harry led his lover to bed to celebrate the removal of the lingering reminder of the symbol of the chasm that had kept them apart for so long.

_A/N:_

_Sunset on Heartache: I hate it when Draco has no scars. If George's ear can't be regrown after being cursed off, it just logically seems that Draco would carry scars as well since it was the same spell that caused both._

_Lientjuhh, Lupinesence, xxxxParvati-Patilxxxx – thanks!_

_RRW – I don't see the Weasleys as the intolerant sort, and a lot of time has passed since the years where Ron was shrieking about slimy Slytherins. I figure everyone's well and truly grown up by now. As for the rest of the country, we'll see if media negativity turns up._

_Attagrl – I may, at some point, write a one-shot or two that are far more lemony than what I'm using in the story, just to keep the bedroom bits as a very secondary part of this particular piece. As your first review said, there aren't a lot of Drarry family fics out there, so I prefer (for this story at least) to leave the lemon bits to the reader's imagination._

_Actually, if I manage to get this one completed (I suspect there's about five more chapters), then I'm likely to write some of the "side-fics" this one makes me think about, such as how some of the other couples mentioned either in passing or in my Hogwarts notes came to be. I suspect a Charlie/Millicent story would have to be a rather rare pairing if I sort out what I want to say about them, eh?_


	11. Chapter 11

_Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JKR, of course. Just puttering about in her world._

It felt rather surreal to Harry to be sitting at a table on the verandah at Malfoy Manor, watching Allie hold both of Richard's hands so the baby could toddle along with her around the garden. Both children were delighted with the obviously magical place, flowers running riot despite the approach of English winter outside the garden's confines. He supposed the charms to shelter the place were a bit like having an invisible greenhouse or sunroom.

What made it even stranger was that he was sitting companionably with Lucius Malfoy. Draco and Narcissa had headed indoors, the Malfoy matriarch enthusiastic about the suite of rooms she had set up for her son and his partner in the family wing. Glad he'd escaped questions of redecorating the rooms, Harry took a sip of his drink and looked askance when he realized Lucius was studying him and the children both.

"It's rather like you and my son were meant to come together," the older man said at last.

"What do you mean?"

"Looking at the children, they each have coloring or features that seem to be from each of you. Allie's dark hair and slightly darker coloring and young Richard's green eyes match yours. She's got the Malfoy eyes, of course, but then his hair is nearly as light as mine."

Harry had to agree with the man's observations, at least on the surface. "When I took Allie into London, there were a few people who thought she was my daughter," he admitted. "But I don't think Richard's hair will stay that shade."

"Was his birth mother blonde?"

"She was, although her hair was a bit darker than her brother's. More of a honey blonde, whereas his was about the same color as Narcissa's actually. A bit less platinum, a wee bit more gold."

Lucius surprised Harry by chuckling. "I suspect that the exact shade common to Malfoys is a partly magical issue. I'm told it doesn't usually exist in adults among Muggles without some sort of potion to lighten hair. Narcissa will be glad to hear of the comparison, I think."

"She seems very happy about Draco and me."

Finding the man's intent gaze on himself was a bit unnerving, and Harry wondered for a moment if the tolerant Lucius he'd heard of for the past decade and seen in past months was about to morph into his earlier self. The man's next words absolved that worry. "We both are. There are many things I would change about the past if I could, but one of them would be convincing Draco to marry when I was well aware he had little interest in women."

"How did you know that when he didn't seem to?"

"I may be many things, Harry, but unobservant isn't one of them. In an earlier time, he'd have married and produced an heir, then sought a lover on the side once he realized where his true feelings lay. If I'd had any idea about Muggle technology that could produce a child such as you used, I would never have sought a marriage contract for him at all."

Surprised, Harry studied Lucius for a moment. "Is that why you aren't upset about us?"

"Partially. You have to understand that I want above all things for my son to be happy. After my choices nearly led to his death and only your interference kept him out of Azkaban, I knew I had to change. The issue of an heir pressured me into a further misstep with him, but if I understand anything about you, I doubt you'll object to Draco having another child or two."

"I'm surprised you're willing to delve that far into Muggle technology."

"Since Severus detailed how your son came to be, I've been researching it. It seems the only real obstacle is money, when one wishes a child, and that's something I have plenty of. When the time is right, and you two are ready for another child, I'll have all the appropriate information waiting for you." Lucius sipped his drink, glancing out to watch the children as they played with the animate tendrils of one of the magical plants. "I've even got information that Muggles have the possibility to combine the genetic material from two males."

"That's not done for humans yet." Harry remembered reading about the process of androgenetic embryos, but only in mice, if he recalled correctly. "I don't know that I'd want to risk the possible problems of that level of experimentation, providing you could find someone even willing to do so."

"Perhaps proper funding for research for a lab with a witch or wizard on staff. Magic might be able to ensure safety of the process."

Harry shook his head. "Maybe. But I'm still not sure I'd risk it. Magic was able to offset several issues Richard had from being a micro-preemie, but even magic couldn't repair his hearing. I'd be afraid of similar with any experimental genetics, not to mention technically Draco and I are cousins."

Lucius sighed. "There is that, and I did search far and wide to avoid inbreeding for Draco, even if it ended up a bad choice. It wouldn't bother you to have multiple children you were raising who had only Draco's bloodline?"

"I could care less, to be honest. I know there's a lot tied to having a magical male heir of Malfoy blood, but aside from that, I'd be perfectly happy adopting children neither of us were biologically related to."

After a moment of watching the children intently, Lucius turned back to Harry. "Draco tells me you had some questions about the House of Black and your own options for an heir."

"I don't want to keep the two Houses tied to one heir, if possible, but with no guarantee I'll have another child, I wondered what options I have for setting another Black male as my heir. My first thought was Draco, but he said there might be something in your marriage contract that barred him from inheriting."

"He is correct. Normally, marriage contracts between any of the twelve Ancient and Most Noble Houses require voiding maternal lines of inheritance to avoid the Houses being combined. You're in the situation you're in, Head of two Houses, simply because someone got sloppy when Dorea Black married Charlus Potter. Sirius took advantage of the oversight in designating you as his Heir."

"Draco suggested I reinstate Andromeda to the Black family so my godson could be designated Heir."

"A good solution except for one small problem. There's a Black male closer to you in the normal lines of succession than either your godson or my own son, if Andromeda is restored to her rightful place."

Harry was puzzled for a moment and then laughed at himself for missing the obvious. "Adrian?"

It seemed Lucius was equally amused. "I am not certain that your godfather would appreciate the irony of that situation, you know."

"I am not certain that Severus will appreciate it either." Harry grinned. "But I'll arrange a dinner with Andromeda and Severus soon and talk to them about it. Thank you."

"I'm just glad that my incessant digging into British wizarding family trees is of service. Severus' family name is Muggle, and his mother was disinherited from the Prince line. Foolishly so on her father's behalf, because his son died without issue and an excised family line can't be returned without a head of family to do it. Rather than allow his half-blood nephew to inherit, Xavier Prince let everything go to a remote male pureblood cousin whose last connection to the Prince name is four generations back. I've met the man, and calling him wizard is a generous appellation since he's barely capable of using a wand."

"I'd like to look at your research sometime. I've heard you've got the best library in Britain concerning the wizarding family lines here. Some of it might be interesting to introduce to my Wizarding Studies class."

"Perhaps at the Christmas holidays we could start looking over my research. I think…"

What else Lucius had been about to say was cut off at an ear-splitting shriek from Richard. As the two men leapt from their chairs to rush to the children on the far side of the garden, the baby's cries changed from fearful to hiccupping sobs.

When they reached the children, Allie had Richard swept high in her arms, eyes closed and sobbing herself while Richard clung to her, tapping her shoulder in his signal for attention. Lucius dropped to his knees next to Allie, rapidly examining both children for signs of harm.

Harry attempted to take Richard from Allie, but his effort caused Richard to hold tighter to the little girl, his sobs becoming angry screeches with each gentle tug. Deciding to leave the boy be for the moment, Harry searched the area while Lucius continued his scans.

The worried grandfather reached out to lift both children into his arms. "I can't find anything medically wrong with either of them, Harry, but she won't answer me at all." He began walking swiftly toward the Manor. "I'll summon the family Healer from St. Mungo's. The garden's well warded so I don't know what could have frightened them so."

Harry wasn't sure what was worse… the crying of the children… or the tinge of terror in Lucius Malfoy's voice.

* * *

><p>Two hours later, the only change in Allie's state was that she had stopped crying, mostly due to the calming potion the Healer had spelled into her. He'd done similar for Richard, but even the potion's effect hadn't gotten Richard to let go of the girl. Every time they'd tried, the baby had screamed in outrage, and Allie's own agitation increased. They'd decided it was best for the time being that the children be left to cling to each other.<p>

Harry was roused from his worried state by the sound of a familiar stride as Severus' boot heels clicked along the polished manor floors. The black-haired wizard swept into the room, going directly to the children. He sat on the bed and caressed Allie's cheek before turning to Draco. "Narcissa floo-called me. She thought I might be able to Legilimency since Allie refuses or can't speak."

Draco assented, his hand squeezing Harry's. They both shot Narcissa a grateful look, glad she'd thought of an alternative even under her obvious worry for the children.

Severus aimed his wand and spoke the spell softly, and Harry watched as Allie's eyes glazed over slightly. But the Headmaster pulled away far too quickly, turning to explain. "I have no idea how, but she's got shields up, well-constructed ones. I could break them down, but the process would be painful and could make things worse."

"Don't." Harry nearly choked on the word, remembering his own Occlumency lessons fifth year. They'd made their peace with each other, but that particular set of bad memories persisted for Harry. "Try Richard before you try anything that might hurt her."

With an understanding look, Severus stroked Richard's hair, gaining the baby's attention. As green eyes met black, both were quiet for several minutes and then Severus went utterly still. After a moment, he leaned in and placed a kiss on Richard's forehead, signing "thank you" to the boy.

"Severus? Did you find anything?" Draco's voice cracked, and Harry dropped his hand to slip an arm around his waist instead.

The Headmaster seemed to be mulling something over before he answered. "Alcyone is not a Squib."

Narcissa was the first to respond to that revelation. "Is this some sort of accidental magic?"

Severus shook his head. "Not precisely." He met Draco's gaze evenly across the bed. "Your daughter cannot be a Squib, because she's a Parselmouth."

When none of the Malfoys responded, Harry spoke up. "Are you certain, Severus?"

"The children were watching some insects among the flowers when a snake appeared at their feet. She snatched the baby up, causing him to scream in fright. She ordered the snake to leave them alone, then looked terrified and started sobbing. There's nothing wrong with Richard other than he is very attached to Allie and knows something's wrong with her right now."

"She shows symptoms of shock," the Healer broke in. "I wasn't sure why, since neither had any sort of injury. But it's possible the snake frightened her badly enough to induce shock, especially if the baby started screaming and she thought he was injured."

Draco's voice was soft. "Are you sure it was Parseltongue, Severus? He's just a baby so how would Richard know? He can't hear well, after all."

Severus' smile was grim. "I don't know if it was proximity to Allie or what, but I know Parseltongue when I hear it."

Harry had heard enough of Voldemort's time at Malfoy Manor to understand the collective shudder of the three adult Malfoys at the reminder of why Severus was familiar with the talent. He tried to disperse the darker thoughts. "Then I suppose Allie and I have more in common than messy black hair," he announced, reaching out to take the girl's free hand.

Stroking her wrist with his thumb, Harry spoke softly to the girl. "Allie, sweetheart, I'm sorry the snake scared you so much, but you did a wonderful thing in telling it to go away in its own language. It's the same kind of magic I have, talking to snakes."

It seemed to get through to the girl at last and her eyes fluttered open, wide and fearful. "You can do it too?"

Nodding, Harry gave her a reassuring smile. "The first time I ever talked to a snake was a boa at the zoo. Is this the first time you've ever spoken to one?"

Allie gave a hiccupping little cry of distress and shook her head.

"It's nothing to be afraid of, sweetheart. It makes you a very special little girl, actually." He felt Draco's hand join his own in comforting Allie, glancing sideways to see the blond nodding in agreement.

"But my mother said it was a horrible, wicked thing to know and told me if I ever did it again, I'd be sent far away because it would make me evil."

Not for the first time, Harry felt an intense desire that Tilda Malfoy was still alive to face his wrath. By the gasps from the others in the room, he suspected he wasn't the only one.

"Just because a bad person or two was a parselmouth doesn't make the talent a bad thing, Allie." Draco's tone was loving. "It just means you're a unique little witch."

Trembling lips moved into a hesitant smile. "It means I'm a witch?"

"Oh yes, my darling. You're our very own special witch." Draco reached out and dragged both children into his lap, cuddling them close. "And a very good big sister for protecting Richard even when you were frightened yourself."

As the little girl drifted into a sleep influenced by the calming potion and the gentle rocking of her father, Harry met the eyes of the other adults in the room. By the look of Lucius and Severus both, there would be an investigation into Tilda's behavior around her daughter. But overlying the anger all of them felt was a bright sense of relief.

There was no longer any doubt that Alcyone Malfoy was a witch, and that was a blessing indeed.

_A/N:_

_xxxxParvati-Patilxxxx: It's not a Hogwarts letter, but the next best thing!_

_Lientjuhh: Thanks! I'm glad you're continuing to enjoy the story._


	12. Chapter 12

_Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JKR, of course. Just puttering about in her world._

_A/N: Sorry for the long delay. Exams and my offspring kept me away from getting to finalize this chapter, plus it didn't flow the way I wanted it too. The next chapter should be out in the next 2-3 days. I estimate 2 more chapters, and perhaps an epilogue._

Parseltongue

In the month it took Severus and Poppy to gently work through the usual mental shields Allie had managed to erect for herself, Harry thought of ways to lay the groundwork for the child's acceptance at Hogwarts as a Parselmouth. He'd be damned before he let her go through the trauma of having an entire school's worth of children swearing she was dark due to having a rare magical skill, especially after her own mother had terrified her so badly of the skill the girl had managed to block her own magic. Not that Severus would ever allow the large-scale mistreatment of any child that Dumbledore had routinely overlooked, but when it came to a child he loved, Harry was taking no chances.

A quick trip to Muggle London, and he came home with pair of snakes, grinning at the variety shop owner had that he knew didn't exist before snake breeders got involved. The docile rat-eaters were easy to care for and non-venomous, unlike the majority of magical snakes. While he wouldn't mind a venomous pet, it wasn't a responsible choice living in a castle full of children or in consideration of Richard's looming toddlerhood. Allie had happily claimed the lavender corn snake, exclaiming happily and refusing to believe the pretty coloration wasn't from magic. In typical child naming tactics, the snake was promptly dubbed Lavender. The little male snake didn't seem to mind the feminine moniker, so it stuck.

He'd been surprised to see a reverse stripe High White California King Snake in a London shop, but the owner had indicated the snake was sold to his shop by an American family whose child had outgrown the novelty of owning the snowy white snake with its obsidian back stripe. He had let the snake wrap around his wrist, its coloring reminding him so strongly of Hedwig that he almost put it back. But he'd decided at last that his first pet would be honored he selected another pet with her coloring in mind. He hadn't shown himself much more creative than the nine-year-old in pet naming. His sweet natured little snake was simply called Frost.

Both snakes had been happy to find themselves among humans that could speak to them, although seemed puzzled that the talent wasn't widespread.

Harry introduced the snake in his third year Wizard Studies class, figuring the Muggleborn or Muggle-raised children less likely to know of either Voldemort or himself having the skill. It wasn't well-documented in the biographies and histories posted after the war that he was a Parselmouth, although it featured prominently in Voldemort's.

The children filed in, darting puzzled glances at their professor, who sat reading at his desk with the snake draped across his shoulders. Prompting from him before the class had started had Frost pretending to read along with him, her delicate black-marked head swaying back and forth. It was all Harry could do not to laugh at their expressions and the overheard whispers of "Is that snake _reading_?"

His amusement carried him through the entire class covering wizarding musical instruments, especially when Frost enjoyed the music and "danced" along to a few of them. At the end of the class, he distributed a parchment among the students. "If any of you want to know more about playing an instrument, there will be classes offered in the evenings next term for third years. Which instruments will depend on how many students indicate an interest and in what. Beyond the introductory term, it is up to you to consult with your parents for continued music lessons, although arrangements can be made with the Headmaster for a musical tutor to visit the school evenings or weekends. Now off to lunch with the lot of you."

It was one of the changes Harry had liked about Hogwarts, the extracurricular activities that had been added. The school couldn't justify a full-scale musical or art program, but single-term introductions via his classes let the children get a taste of something and then left it open to their parents to continue lessons. There was even a "scholarship" fund to provide continued lessons for any child whose parent couldn't afford the extra expense.

As expected, the students didn't make their usual stampede to the door, so common to classes just prior to lunch. Some did drift that way, but finally a Ravenclaw spoke up. "I've never seen a snake like that," the boy said. "What kind of snake is it, Professor? A magical one?"

Harry shook his head. "It's a California king snake, originally a North American breed but found over here due to pet shops." He stroked the underside of Frost's jaw with a finger. "Frost here is a bit of a specialty of breeding. Most commonly this type of king snake has banded stripes, black and white. Her color phase is called a reverse stripe."

Since the first question had been answered, another child piped up. "Is it venomous?"

"No. All king snakes are non-venomous, unlike most magical snakes. They eat other snakes and reptiles, rodents, birds, eggs, and generally anything small enough for them to follow. She's fully grown, by the way. They don't get much bigger."

"My brother has a ball python," came a soft voice from the back. The girl was one of his shyer students, the only Muggleborn child in a family of four children. "He's as long as I am tall."

"I used to have one that size in my classroom in America." The snake had been popular with the middle school boys in his science classes. He saw nothing in the students' faces that indicated any great fear of the snake now twining down his right arm. "I know that snakes are traditionally associated with Slytherin House and by some older wizards as a dark creature, but they make nice pets. Does anyone here know what rare magic talent is associated with snakes?"

The two Slytherin students exchanged glances and the girl seemed to be volunteered to speak up. "Parseltongue." Her answer got her blank looks from her classmates, so she elaborated. "Speaking snake language."

"Five points to Slytherin." Harry smiled. "It is a talent often attributed to the founder of Slytherin House so I'm glad House history is still being handed down properly. It's a very rare talent in Britain, almost exclusively confined to his descendants, but more well-known especially in the Americas and Asia. I've heard that it's so common among wizards in Indonesia that snakes are the most commonly preferred familiar there."

The Slytherin girl, proud of earning points, grew bolder. "There's a rumor in our House, Professor, but I've never seen any confirmation of it."

"What would that be?" House lore still persisted, history and little secrets not readily shared across House lines. Severus didn't discourage it because students did need things to take pride in about their House, so long as such lore didn't become the source of bullying or strife. Draco had informed him that it was an unconfirmed secret in Slytherin of his talent.

"That you're a Parselmouth." When he nodded, the girl looked thrilled. He imagined she'd be rather popular in her common room tonight, to be able to bring back proof of such a rumor.

"There have only been two known British Parselmouths in the past century, although since it has been considered a Dark talent for at least that amount of time, there could have been others who simply chose not to disclose it. The talent is neither Light nor Dark, simply rare here, much like being a Metamorphagus or Animagi." He waved the children toward the door. "Off to lunch before your housemates eat it all."

The children scattered at last, and he realized belatedly that none of them had asked for a demonstration. The pre-lunch timing of reminding students of his ability had been on purpose. By telling one class and then taking the snake with him to lunch, it would be all over Hogwarts by dinner.

That was nice Frost said. Will we do it again?

As long as you're not tired I have two more classes this afternoon. With her assent, they headed for the Great Hall to finish setting his plan to make the residents of Hogwarts comfortable with Parseltongue.

* * *

><p>Draco entered their bedroom from the bathroom, clad only in his towel, casting a drying charm on his hair. He watched Harry, who lay on the bed with Frost on his bare chest, chatting idly to the snake. "I should find the sound of you talking to her abhorrent, but instead it's a turn-on," he said.<p>

Laughing, Harry bid the snake goodnight and set her on the floor so she could seek out the small habitat he'd created for her beside the wardrobe. "Why's that? Everyone says they just hear hissing. Not really my idea of sexy."

"I think it's because I can feel your magic just like when you're casting a spell." Draco discarded his towel and slid into bed next to Harry.

"Ah. Makes sense then." Remus had forewarned Harry, once he'd realized that he and Draco were involved, that magical pairs often found themselves becoming sensitive to the magic of their partners. It wasn't something Harry had experienced before, since he and Ginny had barely dated and his partners since had all been Muggle. The level of the sensitivity was often reflective of the individual power of each half. Draco was a powerful wizard in his own right, so it wasn't shocking they were beginning to sense the other's magic quite clearly when near each other. "Feels a bit like a tingling all over now, doesn't it?"

Draco chuckled. "I'm starting to understand why Andromeda looks a bit dazed if she's nearby and Severus has to cast something that taps into Hogwarts' magic. Can you imagine the boost to his own power?"

"I imagine it'd be almost like a firewhiskey buzz for someone not used to it. Andromeda's had a decade to do that, at least. I wonder if that's why Dumbledore was single throughout his career as Headmaster." Harry might not hold the man in the esteem he had as a youth, but he had to acknowledge the man had been the most powerful wizard of his age.

"Might explain it. I always wondered about him and McGonagall, you know. We had a bet in Slytherin about it, but then there seemed to be truth to what Skeeter published about him and Grindlewald, at least as far as his brother admitted."

The reminder of Dumbledore's sexuality - one thing he did have in common with the meddling old man - made Harry thoughtful. "I wonder if he'd have been less of a manipulator if he had moved on, or if he'd become a father. I can't imagine allowing any children to go through the things he allowed, not as a father myself."

"I still wonder at my own father's sanity, all things considered."

Harry tugged Draco close, wrapping his body protectively around the other man. "At least he woke up before he lost everything truly important to him. It's too easy to let hate rule your emotions instead of love."

"It's amazing you didn't," Draco said softly. Harry had spent more than a few late nights curled up like this with his lover, filling in the blanks of his life before Hogwarts.

"Hate would have made me too much like them. I just kept fighting to be the opposite of that and look where it got me. I have a wonderful family, a great job, and I've fallen in love twice when some don't even manage it once."

Draco went completely still in Harry's arms, then turned so that grey eyes met green. "Do you mean that?"

"I know we haven't said it officially, Draco, but it's rather obvious what we feel for each other." Harry interrupted himself to claim a kiss, his mouth exploring Draco's tenderly. "But I'll state it boldly so you know for sure. I love you."

The blond's breath hitched as he buried his face in Harry's shoulder. His voice was half-muffled as he replied. "I love you too."

Harry gently urged Draco to meet his gaze again. This wasn't exactly how he'd planned on asking, but naked in bed wasn't exactly mundane either. He stroked the other man's cheek. "I want to make our family as official as possible."

"We can't marry…"

"No, but a civil partnership is just splitting hairs, isn't it, legally?" He smiled. "Nothing stops us from calling each other what we like or even having a ceremony for our friends and family."

"My mother would be ecstatic to plan something."

"So that's a yes?" Harry's smile widened into a full-fledged grin.

"Yes, Harry." Draco's own happy expression changed to something more intense as he moved to pin Harry beneath him. "As long as it means getting to make love to you for the rest of our lives."

Harry had no objections to that and joined Draco to demonstrate exactly what lay in store for them.

_A/N:_

_RRW: I imagine Lucius would at least think long and hard about it. I see him as being a bit closer to Severus in wanting to pay penance though. The subject of removing the Mark will come up in another chapter (next one, I think), although for one of the younger former Death Eaters instead of the older ones. You are correct in why Allie stopped using her magic (she's a fairly powerful little witch, and fear of abandonment or abuse can make children repress all sorts of thing, so why not magic?) Richard is truly deaf, although that isn't quite the disability in the wizarding world that it might be in the Muggle. It will be something addressed in a later chapter though._

_mizzrazz72: I had considered having the woman still be alive and Draco divorced instead of a widower. But as I planned the story, I realized that even if Harry and Draco showed restraint, I think Lucius (or Narcissa) might snap and earn a stint in Azkaban. I think it would be very easy for someone like Lucius to backslide in the name of protecting his family, especially as he's already tarnished his soul and might justify it as not much more to rid the world of a woman who'd harmed his darling granddaughter._

_Lupinesence: Allie will have a much better Squib-to-witch story than poor Neville did, eh?_

_Sun: I'm sorry you're confused, but Harry's husband is indeed Jessie. Jamie was Jessie's sister, who was the surrogate for young Richard._

_Zei : I'm glad you like the changes with Lucius and find them believable. I know my Harry and Draco are moving a bit fast (although keep in mind there are 2-4 week jumps in time between chapters), but unlike a brand-new couple, they already know each other very well so don't have the need to go as slowly. I also see Harry as being a bit "grab it while you can" because he knows how fragile life is._

Sunset on Heartache: I'm very glad you liked it since you've been with the story so faithfully! I was afraid folks would get fussed that I didn't keep Allie a Squib although she was never intended to be one.

Silvermane1, hulagal13, Lientjuhh, WolfGirl75, CaramelAriana: Thanks!


	13. Chapter 13

_Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JKR, of course. Just puttering about in her world._

_A/N: Oh man. I never expected a delay like this. Final exams and extra hours offered at work sucked up all my creativity for a bit. This story is also being cross-posted at The Petulant Poetess and might have some revisions on older chapters as I review it for there._

"Quit fussing and come on, Draco. We're late already," Harry called in amusement. They'd brought their children and things for the Christmas holiday to Malfoy Manor, but had plans to meet for a group dinner with the other young Hogwarts professors to celebrate the end of term. But the blond was having a harder time leaving the children in his mother's care than Harry, seeming to endlessly remember one more thing to tell Narcissa.

His pale skin slightly flushed with embarrassment as Draco realized what he was doing, he came to join Harry at the floo. "I know she can find us easily, but…" he trailed off as Harry smiled and tugged him close for a fond kiss.

"There's no one I trust more to leave _our_ children with," Harry reminded him softly. It was true. He was absolutely certain Narcissa Malfoy would die before harm befell either child. She'd laid claim to his son with a grandmotherly fierceness that overrode any lack of blood tie to Richard, even surprising Harry by learning sign language even though the baby was too young yet.

The emphasis on 'our' earned him a beautiful smile from Draco and a less chaste kiss than he'd given. The blond fussed with his robe, making sure the lines of the deep blue silk fell properly over his white tunic and trousers. He followed it with adjusting the collar of Harry's shirt and brushing his fingers along the emerald green vest the dark-haired man wore beneath matching green robes. "Let's go then."

Harry chuckled as he preceded his fiancé through the floo, arriving in the popular Diagon Alley restaurant and waiting to offer his hand to Draco when he emerged. He'd not been all that thrilled that the group wanted to have dinner at such a popular hotspot for the younger wizarding population, but the women of the group had insisted that Rio was the best place to celebrate. At least the food would be a new experience, since the place specialized in Brazilian food.

Draco immediately began scanning the tables, before leading Harry to the young witch acting as hostess and telling her they were joining the Hogwarts table. She did a double take as she recognized the couple before her, but quickly remembered her job when the blond arched an elegant eyebrow at her.

As they followed the girl to the table where their friends and colleagues were already gathered, Harry flashed Draco a grin. "You have to teach me how you do that. Imagine if we did it in concert to everyone who gave us that startled look."

The blond laughed softly. "A few of them might faint dead away, you know."

There had been surprisingly little opposition from others when they'd begun appearing in public together after the understated announcement of their engagement in newspapers. Most reactions were much like the girls, or sometimes akin to what Harry had seen on entertainment shows about fan reactions to movie stars. He'd been relieved that the ten years he'd been gone had allowed much of the British wizarding population's fascination with him to fade, and the Malfoys' mostly restored reputation meant that it was viewed merely as a pending alliance of families common to the wizarding world.

They took their seats as the others greeted them. Harry was happy to be amidst this group of friends. Being at Hogwarts had allowed him to happily enjoy the renewing friendships with his old friends, as well as making new ones with those spouses who he'd not known before. He ended up seated next to Millicent Bulstrode-Weasley and smiled brightly at the stout witch.

"Bit loud in here tonight. You'd almost think that everyone's out celebrating end of term," she commented.

"Downside of end of term falling on a Friday, I suppose."

She nodded. "But I have to admit it's good to be surrounded by a noisy crowd mostly our own age instead of having to be on the lookout for students' mischief amidst their noise."

Harry snorted. "Like they try any mischief with you within sight." Millicent's strict reputation among students nearly put Severus' to shame, although she was known for a strict sort of fairness that reminded Harry of the retired Minerva McGonagall.

"You'd be surprised what I come across, and just wait until young Richard is the same age as my Constantine. No respect for my fearsome professorial reputation at all from that young one."

That caused her husband, seated to her left, to break out into laughter and join the conversation. "You expected anything else from a Weasley son, dear?" Charlie asked.

Harry's laughter at Millicent's mock despair drew Draco out of the conversation he was having with Hermione, seated to his right. When the joke was explained, he patted the witch's hand and winked at her. "See, Millicent, that's why Hermione's considered the brightest witch of our age. She was smart enough _not_ to take on the Weasley bloodline."

Everyone at the table now laughed. Half the table was a Weasley couple, although only Percy was a professor rather than a spouse.

Ron grinned. "Well, she proved herself the bravest witch of our age. She did take on the Longbottom bloodline, after all." He yelped as Hermione's stinging hex landed, but then grinned as his wife congratulated Hermione on her aim.

The interaction of the women made Harry smile. He'd worried at first when he returned that there would be at best coolness between Orla and Hermione, considering she'd dated Ron for three years. But it seemed the witches had an easy friendship between them, one he figured came from being completely content in their choice of marriage partners. Neville certainly held nothing but warm friendship for Ron, but Harry had expected that. Orla, being a younger Ravenclaw, had been an unknown for him.

As Hermione turned her attention to him, Harry wasn't entirely sure he liked the teasing glint in her eyes. "As challenging as Weasley or Longbottom bloodlines might be to parent, who do we sympathize with you two?" she asked, causing the rest of the table to begin laughing again. "Honestly, Malfoy versus Potter? The world's only safe because you can't actually combine your genetics!"

While Harry laughed, he realized Draco hadn't. Hermione came to the same realization and instantly sobered to apologize if she'd offended the blond.

Draco gave her a reassuring smile, but it held none of its usual brilliance. "I know blood doesn't matter to us as parents, but it feels so strange, to know we'll need some stranger's help anytime we want children," he explained, voice soft enough that those on the opposite side of the table had to strain to hear.

"Why do you have to choose a stranger?" Harry almost smiled. Luna's voice hadn't lost its dreamy tones even in an adulthood that included marriage to Viktor Krum, four children of her own, and control of Hogwarts' version of a primary school.

"Well, that's how this surrogate thing works, right?" Draco frowned, glancing between Harry and Hermione for confirmation.

"Depends really," Harry said. "Sometimes it's a family member, like Jamie did for Jessie and I, or a close friend."

Draco shrugged. "Neither of us have a sibling like Jamie to help." He startled as Hermione swatted his arm indignantly.

"It might not be by blood, Draco, but Harry does have siblings, and I for one would be happy to help out."

That earned her stunned looks from both Harry and Draco, and Harry's gaze went quickly to Neville, who only smiled serenely before speaking. "Hermione and I discussed it the day we realized you two were serious," he explained. "And when you're ready for more children, we thought it'd be so much better if you knew absolutely everything about the surrogate mother."

"It isn't just them," Ron said, blue eyes serious. "We've all discussed it as couples, you know." Orla nodded, and Harry was startled to see the other couples also nodding in assent, even quiet Patricia Weasley, who rarely spoke to him unless spoken to.

Draco's attention seemed drawn to Luna, who'd started this revelation off with her sweetly voiced question. "Even you, Luna?" he asked softly.

Viktor spoke before his wife could, covering her small hand with his own large one and smiling. "Surely you know by now that my love considers Harry her brother in heart." His accent was barely noticeable after a decade spent in Great Britain at Luna's side.

Luna's focus on Draco was intent. "I've four wonderful children already," she said. "I know Harry's like me, wanting a large family because he grew up an only child. I'd carry a dozen children for you two if you needed me to."

Harry found his voice at last. Hermione and Luna offering wasn't that surprising, all things considered, but the other women and their Weasley spouses seemed equally confident of the offer being made. "I don't think we'd ask for a dozen," he managed, feeling Draco's fingers tighten around his hand in seek of comfort and reassurance.

Luna hummed happily. "Just think, Draco. I look so much like you in coloring that any child I had would fit right in with Allie and Richard."

All the Slytherin managed was a quiet thank you, his gaze seeking his menu as he swallowed hard. Harry tugged his fingers free to put his arm around the blond's shoulders instead, happy when the other man leaned into him.

Harry met the gaze of each couple, finally nodding. "When we're ready, we'll sort things out then." His chest felt constricted with emotion and warmth at the sheer amount of love he saw in everyone's gazes. It made him wonder how he'd managed to stay away so long, and he spared a moment's wish that he'd brought Jessie home to know these people who all loved him so unquestioningly. It passed, as he realized his late husband would be overjoyed to know he'd come home and found Draco.

"So it's true, Malfoy," a rude voice cut into the quiet sense of companionship encircling the table.

Feeling Draco stiffen under his arm, Harry looked up to see two couples hovering. He recognized Goyle easily, as the man hadn't changed much in full adulthood, but the bulky man and the woman at his side hadn't been the speaker. The woman looked familiar, in the way he knew meant she was a classmate he'd forgotten, and the man with her all but hid behind her as they became the focus of twelve intent sets of eyes.

"If you're referring to the fact that you can read and know Harry and I are engaged, Daphne, then yes, it's true." Draco's voice was cool, dismissive, and so utterly _Malfoy_ that Harry had to smile.

She'd have been pretty if not for the sneer that twisted her features, Harry thought, and he steeled himself for what he expected to follow. Homophobia didn't normally plague the wizarding world the way it did the Muggle, but it still existed, and Harry knew that look unfortunately well.

"And your father consented to this?" she continued. "After all he's done to restore your family and now you're a shirt-lifter who won't even provide the family an heir?"

"Funny that you speak of heirs," Draco replied, still cool and dismissive. Harry was proud he didn't seem to be letting his former housemate's disgust affect him. "You don't seem to have any, but then again, marrying your own cousin tends to make such things difficult at best."

Fury contorted the woman's features. "I have an heir, you bastard."

"Ah, yes. Astoria does have children now, doesn't she." Draco turned as if to explain to Harry. "The Greengrasses do allow for a female head of family, but rumor has it that Nigel Greengrass intends to name his younger daughter head of family when he dies, since she married a Muggleborn and has two sons by him."

Harry addressed the woman at last, his voice near-artic in its chill. "You claim an heir you didn't birth, yet malign Draco that he'll do similar?"

Her timid husband was tugging almost desperately at Daphne's arm, but it was another who succeeded in deflecting the woman at last. "Just because you failed in your bid to become a Malfoy doesn't mean you should be attacking Draco now." The quiet words in the deep baritone voice drew Harry's attention to Goyle, whom he'd forgotten when the confrontation had begun.

The unexpected input caused Daphne to lose whatever reply she'd been readying for Harry, and with a strangled noise, she stalked off, her husband trailing at her heels after an apologetic look to the group.

As soon as she was out of sight, Harry felt Draco relax against him, and the blond's attention turned to his childhood friend. "Thank you, Greg. I didn't know you were back in the country."

The large man shrugged, a slow smile lighting his features. "Eileithyia thought the kids should learn more about where their father's from." He drew his wife forward, allowing her to be introduced to everyone and accepting the invitation to join them. The pretty Greek woman was drawn into conversation with Hermione as Goyle settled next to his friend and studied Harry closely before obviously finding whatever he was looking for and nodding in approval.

"Will you be staying long?" Draco asked, all coldness melted away as he smiled at the bulkier man.

"Depends. Wasn't sure how welcome I'd be back here. Not something I wanted my children exposed to, having to live with the mistakes I made." He made the sort of unconscious gesture to his left forearm Harry was used to seeing from redeemed Death Eaters. "But Eileithyia and I would prefer to send the kids to Hogwarts instead of the school she attended in Greece. She likes the prestige of it."

Draco's attention had also been drawn to the gesture Goyle had made at his forearm, and after a glance at Harry, who nodded, he drew back the sleeve of his robe and began unbuttoning his shirt cuff. They both watched Goyle closely as the blond revealed unmarked pale skin.

"How?" The question held so much pure hope that Harry's heart lurched in response. He'd made the offer to Lucius and Severus, who had both refused to have their Mark removed, but he'd not thought of the others like Draco who'd had to choose between death or the Mark when they were barely out of childhood.

"Harry took it away using a spell he learned in America."

Goyle looked to Harry, startled, and Harry smiled and drew his wand, making the offer obvious. The man's fingers were clumsy as he attempted to unfasten his shirt cuff, causing Draco to bat them away and finish the job. The faded silvery mark was more obvious on his darker skin than it had been against Draco's paleness, and Harry drew on his power as he spoke the spell, his wand tracing the ugly Mark. As it faded, the other man gasped, taking deep, shuddering breaths that caused his wife to place a hand at his back in concern.

The table was quiet as the large man got his emotions under control, his fingers tracing the clear skin of his forearm in awe. "It's gone. Really, truly gone." When he met Harry's gaze this time, his dark eyes were bright with unshed tears. "There was always a taint left, even on my magic," he admitted.

Harry smiled sadly. "I know, Goyle. I felt how deeply it reached when I took Draco's away."

"Greg."

"What?"

"My friends call me Greg."

Harry's smile brightened. He knew Draco had missed his friend, who'd persistently stayed abroad much like Harry had, avoiding reminders of the war. Maybe now the man would come back home. "Greg, then."

The waitress came then, and in sorting out orders, any further serious conversation was lost, but Harry couldn't help realizing that tonight's dinner to celebrate the end of term had turned into something so much more. The thought made him warm to the core.

_A/N:_

_columcille: I'm glad you liked the family combination that produced young Richard. Originally when I conceived the story I'd intended an unrelated surrogate, but as I began outlining it, I remembered a lesbian couple from a parenting group I was part of, who'd bypassed the potential tricky legalese by using donor sperm from related males. It also led heavily to the revelations in this chapter, where those who consider Harry family offer surrogacy as well. As for the Black family interrelations, it always puzzled me how Harry inherited from Sirius if the Black family was so staunchly pureblood. The wizarding world seems so far behind the modern world that I figured they'd have to complicated inheritance laws similar to historical ones, and the Black family tree does include a Black who married a Potter, so I figured why not delve into that angle._

_RRW: Elopement might be their best bet, but probably not the safest one. Narcissa would probably put on a ceremony late on anyway! lol_


	14. Chapter 14

_Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JKR, of course. Just puttering about in her world._

_A/N: Another chapter quickly on the heels of the last! I can officially say that the story is completed as of last night. There's one more official chapter, which is a bit shorter than most, and then an epilogue chapter set 20 years in the future. I hope you all enjoy._

_ {{Parselmouth}}  
><em>

Harry shivered in the winter air, for once missing the layers of wizarding clothing that made the winter outdoors less frigid back home. He knelt in the snow, brushing it away from the grave site carefully. He could have charmed the snow away, since no one was in the cemetery, but it would stand out too vividly in a Muggle area. Besides, there was solace in doing the work himself.

Thankfully the groundskeeper at this cemetery took pride in his work. The months Harry had been at Hogwarts hadn't allowed neglect to curl around Jessie and Jamie's graves. There was no debris under the snow, and the stone urns that had held purple tulips been cleared out for the winter. He'd paid extra to have that done, since the bulbs would die in a container over the harsh winters here. The only charms he'd allowed himself were those that made the headstones and urns unbreakable, with an addition that anyone trying would grow distracted and leave the area entirely. He'd seen too many damaged monuments to resist that much.

He held the photo frame he'd brought with him for a long moment, the Muggle picture of Richard amidst all his Christmas wrapping paper making his heart ache that neither Jessie nor Jamie would ever see the boy grow up. The frame was larger than the photo, and Harry had filled the rest with handwritten little notes about Richard's milestones during the year. Figuring the groundskeeper would assume he'd cemented the frame in place, he risked a wandless Sticking Charm to affix the frame to the base that ran under both headstones.

That done, he began to speak, at first haltingly, with unshed tears choking his voice, but then the words came easier as he imagined himself filling his lost family in on Richard's deeds throughout the year. Finally he'd said all he'd wanted about the baby, but he remained kneeling on the frozen ground.

"I'm getting married again," he admitted softly at last. "He loves our son like his own, and Richard adores him. I know it's only been a year you've been gone, but losing you proved to me all over again just how damned uncertain life can be. I don't think I could live with myself if I had stuck some sort of artificial waiting period on being with him and then lost him before that deadline passed."

He took a deep, steading breath and managed a smile. "Funny thing is, I think if you met him, you'd adore him too. I wish I'd taken you home just once, so you'd know everyone, not just the few who came over for visits." With an effort due to the cold that had seeped into his lower legs, Harry stood. "I think you'd be happy to know that Richard and I aren't alone."

As Harry stepped back to begin the trek back to where he'd parked his rental car, he felt a warming charm wash over him. Startled, he turned, expecting to see Severus had realized his plans for the day and tagged along. But instead there was Draco, standing solemnly a few feet back. Before he could speak, the blond's wand flicked, causing a wealth of large yellow wildflowers to cover the bared soil of the graves.

"Adonis. It stands for sorrowful remembrance." Another flick and trailings of green ivy wove around the stems of the yellow flowers. "Ivy, for wedded love and friendship."

"It's a Muggle area, Draco. Flowers in winter are a bit odd."

Draco only studied his work solemnly. "It's a charm only wizards can see the results of. Bit like a notice-me-not, I suppose, or maybe because it's pure magic Muggles naturally ignore it." He met Harry's gaze. "They deserve something beautiful even in winter, and any wizards who notice will know they are important in both worlds to someone."

Something about the last statement made the tears he'd managed not to shed earlier start falling, and Harry made a single choking sound before strong arms circled him and drew him close. The tears didn't last long, but when he drew away, Draco's shoulder was damp.

"I can understand why you'd want to do this on your own, Harry, but I wanted to pay my respects too," the blond explained.

"How did you know where to go?"

"Severus and Arthur. Severus even had the portkey ready for me. They considered coming with me but thought you'd prefer not having a crowd."

Harry took Draco's hand, glad neither of them were sensible and wearing gloves. "I'm glad you came."

"Do you truly think he'd have liked me?"

Surprised by the uncertainty in the other man's voice, Harry nodded. "They both would have, actually, and Jamie would have gotten along famously with your mother."

The walk to the car was a quiet one, with neither seeming to need further conversation. Draco slid into the passenger seat, waiting until Harry had started the car before asking if they were heading back to the wizarding area or if he had more to do before they returned.

The dark-haired man hesitated a moment. "I was thinking about going by the house. It hasn't sold yet, and I wanted to check up on things."

"Alright. I'd like to see where you lived, actually, if you still want to go."

Harry smiled, glad Draco wasn't uncomfortable with the idea. If he were honest, the idea of stepping foot back there after so long away was daunting, more than visiting the cemetery had been. He put the car in gear, making the short ten minute trip with small comments to point out significant places in the neighborhood to the blond. He fell quiet as he pulled into the driveway of the sprawling Victorian he'd purchased when he'd first moved to the area after graduating from college and getting his teaching degree.

"Harry, it's absolutely beautiful."

"Really?" It surprised him a bit, considering the Manor Draco called home. He knew the historical property was considered handsome and sprawling, especially by Harry's terms.

"Yeah." Draco had his door open, emerging from the car to study the house. Harry shut off the car and followed him. "It's large enough for a family, but still small enough to be cozy."

Harry laughed at that. "It was a bit of a mess when I bought it, but worth the effort to make repairs, although I rattled around in it until I met Jessie." He offered his hand to Draco and led the other man to the door. His keys were with the estate agent, but that was easily bypassed with an unlocking charm. He braced himself as they stepped into the foyer, taking in the furniture he'd left behind.

"I can't believe it hasn't sold." Draco squeezed Harry's hand, tugging him along as he began to explore the ground floor.

"The Muggle economy's fairly depressed here, especially for selling a restored house this size. I've thought about lowering the price, but the estate agent tells me to just be patient."

Draco was looking thoughtful, especially as they discovered the modernized kitchen. Harry was certain he didn't know what most of the appliances were, but the other man explored them all thoughtfully, trailing fingers along the granite countertops. "How many bedrooms does it have?"

"Seven. Jessie teased me I was planning for a small army of children when I bought the place." He stepped to the kitchen, enjoying the view of the river at the edge of the property. "The bedrooms are a bit scattered. Three on the second floor, two on the third, one on the ground floor, and one on the basement level. That one's a self-contained flat, with its own bath and kitchen. Third floor has a big playroom too."

Reaching the dining area off the kitchen, Draco was now exploring the smooth wood of the dining chairs. "What if you didn't sell it, Harry?"

Green eyes met grey as Harry turned from the window. "It's rather far away from home."

Draco scoffed. "We both own properties all over Europe. Why not a family home in America? We can bring the children here during the summer holiday, and it's big enough that my parents or Severus and Andromeda can visit. We can hook up the fireplace in the front room to the floo network, and then it's just a slightly longer period of dizziness to get here anytime we like."

"You wouldn't mind living here?" While Harry knew Draco had lived at both Hogwarts and Malfoy Manor with his former wife, both places were so much more than a home in his eyes that it didn't occur to him to see anything of the woman around. But here, the ghost of Jessie would always linger, and Jamie too, since she'd lived in the basement flat.

Crossing the room to take Harry's hand in his, Draco ghosted a kiss across his lips. "I love you, and you obviously love this house, Harry. Knowing you had a happy marriage here only makes me like the place more, not less."

Harry smiled. "If you're absolutely certain, then I'd love to keep the house. I did so much of the work with my own hands it feels like the house is part of me."

"It's settled then." Draco's own smile was so content that Harry couldn't resist. He pressed the other man into the counter, hands seeking the silken blond hair as he kissed him with all the love and gratitude he could muster. When they parted at last for breath, Harry leaned his forehead against Draco's. "I've said it before, but I don't know how I got so lucky twice in one lifetime. I love you beyond words."

"I love you too. All parts of you, including the one that will always love Jessie." Draco's hands were gentle as they stroked his back. "Now let's go find that estate agent and cancel the idea she's selling this place."

That was a plan Harry couldn't object to, and he knew neither of them wanted to remain half the world away from their children for very long.

* * *

><p>As Harry and Draco approached the playroom, they were surprised to see Narcissa and Andromeda giggling at the playroom door. Since the occupants they could see didn't seem to hear the women's laughter, Harry assumed a silencing spell was in place. "What's so funny?" he asked as he and Draco joined them at the door.<p>

"Just look," Andromeda said, leaning against her sister as they giggled. It reminded Harry that he was glad the two sisters had overcome the years of blood politics that had driven them apart.

Inside the room, the simple Muggle dollhouse had been transfigured into something resembling a miniature Malfoy Manor. Lucius appeared to be redecorating the rooms and rearranging the small furniture with flicks of his wand at Allie's solemn direction. Beside him, next to where Richard sat sucking his thumb, Severus was busy transfiguring small bits of cloth into wizarding garments for Allie's now immense collection of Barbie dolls.

"How in the world did they get drawn into doing this instead of you two?" Draco asked.

"We left the children with them to go to a meeting for the children's charity," Narcissa explained. "When we returned, we found this going on. Lucius has already had to expand the dollhouse once, to add a dressing room for all the robes and such Severus has been making for the dolls."

Harry's attention was drawn to another dollhouse expansion, watching as Lucius added a tiny conservatory filled with minuscule plants. "Is he magicking the house too?"

Narcissa nodded. "The kitchen has an oven that makes tiny edible cakes, and the sink washes dishes if you put them in. He made shrunken copies of all Allie's books for the library. Each room has some tiny bit of magic to it, including a tiny potions lab that Severus added."

The men could only shake their heads ruefully at the older males' antics for the children's amusement. Harry turned his attention to Richard, who was intent on watching but held a plush dragon cuddled to his chest. He saw Allie's cornsnake, Lavender, who'd obviously decided to join the quartet at the dollhouse. But instead of going to her mistress, Lavender slithered into Richard's lap, causing the toddler to smile happily as he reached out to carefully touch the snake as he'd been taught.

The snake hissed a happy thank you to the boy, and everyone in the room and hallway froze when Richard hissed back in reply.

Before Harry could voice his own surprised question about what he'd heard, Allie exclaimed happily, "Richard's talking to my snake, Granddad!"

All thoughts of spying on the men forgotten, Harry entered the room, going to his son's side. He touched the cornsnake's scaly head and spoke. Snake

The toddler studied him for a moment, and then solemnly repeated the sound. {{Snake}}

Hoping it wasn't a coincidence, Harry tried again, touching his own chest. {{Father}} Then he touched Richard's chest. {{Son}} Parseltongue didn't really have words for English given names.

Richard seemed to love the game, and quickly hissed the words, repeating them with touching their chests. Harry gave the boy a delighted hug and then turned to Severus with apprehension.

"How is it possible for him to be hearing parseltongue?" he asked.

The dark-haired wizard looked pensive as he mulled over an answer. "There are two options I'd consider. The simplest would be that it's a magical talent and therefore bypasses any physiology to tap into his magical core. The more complex one would be that parseltongue works exactly like a snake's hearing does, using the jaw bones as a sound conductor, and thus Richard can 'hear' due to getting the vibrations he doesn't pick up on with his ears."

Narcissa gave a startled cry, drawing everyone's attention. "But if it's the second, then can't they do more to help him hear?" she asked. "My sign language tutor gave me all sorts of papers, when I told him I wanted to know everything about hearing loss from the Muggle point of view." She summoned a house-elf and directed the little creature to retrieve her 'special papers' off the desk in her study. It returned in an instant with a handful of shiny pamphlets, and Narcissa sorted through it quickly and shoved one into Harry's hands.

"What Severus described, isn't that what this hearing device does?" she asked.

Harry skimmed the pamphlet, remembering the type of hearing aid from the time spent at the children's hospital in America. "They weren't sure it would work, and I didn't want him to have surgery to install the post if they weren't more certain it would."

"Oh, but there's a special one." Narcissa guided him to flip the pamphlet and pointed at the device mounted on a headband. "Perhaps we could try this one? Now that his magic is manifesting, maybe it would work with this?"

She looked so delighted with the prospect that Harry couldn't help drawing her into a hug with Richard squished between them. "Thank you," he whispered softly into her shoulder.

As she drew away at last, the Malfoy matriarch stroked his cheek gently. "That is what family does, my dear. We find ways to help each other no matter what."

The words reminded him that this was a woman who'd lied to the most powerful dark wizard of their lifetimes, all for the love of her only son. For the second time that day, Harry found himself telling a Malfoy just how much he loved them.

_A/N:_

_For anyone curious about it, the hearing aid Narcissa is referring to is called a BAHA. The bone-anchored version requires implanting a titanium post into the skull behind the ear, and then the device is attached to the mount. It is generally used for conducive hearing loss where there is damage to the outer or middle ear, but a still functional inner ear, or when someone has lost hearing in only one ear. I improvise a bit by comparing it to how a snake hears and combining it with Richard's magical talent instead of how it would normally work._

_attagrl – Greg was a bit of a surprise, sneaking into the end of the tale, but I'm glad he demanded his time in the story too. I'm glad you liked the surrogacy offers. Luna is one of my all-time favorite characters, and this story hasn't really shown enough of her. And thanks for the wishes about finals. They did go well, and I actually managed to raise my GPA slightly this semester. :)_

_JaylaCaine – I'm glad you liked the last chapter. And I like to see their little family/friends group as having learned to accept love in all its aspects after the horrors of the war they survived._

_Lientjuhh, Lupinesence, PyroFyre1214 – glad you liked the chapter!_


	15. Chapter 15

_Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JKR, of course. Just puttering about in her world._

_A/N:Last official chapter, with the epilogue to follow tomorrow. Hard to believe it's done. Next story should start up soon though. :)  
><em>

"We should have eloped."

Ron chuckled at Harry's distressed declaration. "Bit late for that, mate. And even if you did, Narcissa would track you down and make you go through this ceremony anyway, you know."

Harry squirmed as Hermione busily inspected his clothing, brushing away an invisible speck of fuzz here and tweaking how the cloth lay there. "Hold still, Harry, or you'll keep making this bunch up."

"I don't know why I agreed to full, formal wizarding dress robes," Harry moaned.

Again, Ron got to be the voice of reason – and his smirk declared he was enjoying his role. "You agreed because Narcissa batted her eyelashes at you while holding your babbling son in her arms."

That memory brought a smile to Harry's face and let most of his discomfort at the posh clothing and impending flamboyant ceremony drain away. Narcissa's pamphlet had proved providential, and after a trip to Edinburgh to the Paediatric Audiology clinic at an NHS hospital, Richard had been fitted with a soft headband that did seem to work despite the audiologist's initial doubt it would work with his level of hearing loss. Severus was rather firm in the theory that Richard's parseltongue manifesting was what led to the BAHA band working and suspected that the bone-anchored device would work even better.

Richard would never have the clarity of hearing that the rest of his family had, but at least now, he could actually understand their speech. He now babbled incessantly and threw tantrums if anyone removed the headband while he was awake. They had to use protective spells in the bath to keep the device safe, but it was worth it.

Hermione finished her clothing adjustments and stood back to study Harry with a critical eye, but her expression slowly turned to one of satisfaction. "You look wonderful, Harry. You carry off the traditional pureblood look well."

"Too many damned buttons to dress like this normally," Harry stated. "I don't know how Severus manages it."

Ron laughed. "Magic, mate. One spell to fasten up all those buttons, and another to release them. Plus whatever he does to make the robes billow out. That has got to be a spell, you know."

The silly statement drew Hermione and Harry into laughter, and the trio fell into a comfortable group hug. "I'm so glad you two are part of this today," Harry said.

It earned him brilliant smiles from the both. They'd attended his first wedding, but it had been an understated affair.

"Harry? Are you ready?" Andromeda stepped into the room, carrying Richard on one hip. She graced them all with a warm smile.

The dark-haired wizard spun slowly for Andromeda to inspect his clothing, finally accepting his outfit as perfect when he realized Richard wore a miniature version of it. Uncomfortable as he might be in the complicated garment, his son looked like he'd been born to such glamor. Someone had charmed the soft cloth of his headband to match the silver robes he wore, with the outlines of tiny green snakes running as a border.

"Da!" Richard reached for his father, grinning happily, and Harry took him, cuddling the boy to his chest and kissing his soft blond hair.

"Allie is ready as well, and I think she's more nervous than you or Draco either one about today going perfectly," Andromeda said, turning to inspect Ron's state of dress after seemingly approving of Harry's. The silver robes over green doublet and black breeches didn't accent the redhead's coloring the way they did Hermione and Harry's, but he still looked regal enough to please the discerning woman.

"Tell Allie I'm certain she'll outshine us all," Harry said. He handed Richard over somewhat reluctantly to Hermione, who stepped to the doorway at Andromeda's urging. The older woman cast a quick tempus charm and nodded.

"Head to the south entrance now and enter with Richard when the music starts." With that last instruction, the current Mrs. Snape hurried off to whatever wedding detail she had to help her sister oversee next.

Harry took a deep breath and followed Hermione and Ron to the ballroom that held the guests waiting to witness what the newspapers had begun declaring the 'wedding of the year' despite it only being February and legally only a ceremony to celebrate a civil partnership. Then again, it was unlikely there'd be another marriage this year of families with the combined standing of Malfoy, Potter, and Black behind them, so Harry supposed it was an accurate description.

The music started, and Hermione set Richard down, holding his hand so the boy could enter alongside her. Harry peeked into the crowded room to see Allie entering from the opposite door, her own small hand tucked into Millicent's. The pair were beautiful in their green robes over a silken silver dress, and Harry didn't think he could feel more joyful than seeing the two women meet in the middle and the children take each other's hands. The ceremony would be short enough that Richard would be allowed to stand with his parents as long as he wanted.

At the change in the music, Ron stepped out into the room, leaving Harry to stand alone. He met Greg in the middle, and the two men shared a smile in greeting before melting to the side of the women who'd entered first.

Feeling the worst attack of nerves he'd ever had, Harry shivered as he stepped fully into the doorway as the music changed one last time. But every ounce of nervousness disappeared as Draco appeared opposite him. He met the beloved grey gaze steadily, each step into the room bringing him closer to the man he'd chosen to spend the rest of his life with.

As they clasped hands over their children's heads, the music ended. Richard looked up and lost the solemn look he'd worn at being in a room full of strange people. He reached up toward Draco with his free hand, demanding to be picked up. "Fa!"

Soft laughter rippled through the guests, and Harry gave Draco an apologetic smile. The blond returned the smile, unperturbed, and lifted the toddler into his arms. As he settled Richard onto the hip away from Harry, Allie moved to Harry's other side as if this change to their positions had been preplanned. Harry put an arm around the little girl and took Draco's outstretched hand.

Severus began to speak, and with the solemn words spoken, the four became the family officially that they were already by love.

* * *

><p>"Are you disappointed we're not having a honeymoon?" Harry asked as the door to their suite in the Manor closed behind them. His feet ached from all the dancing at the reception, but he forgot that as he watched his husband move further into the room and shed his robes. He was suddenly glad Draco had worn the flowing garment. If he'd displayed himself in those tight black breeches during the reception, the celebration would have quickly lacked both grooms.<p>

Draco turned with a smile, shaking his head. "I don't need to go off to some posh hotel or exotic location to celebrate being your husband." As Harry neared him to claim a kiss, he slid Harry's own robes to the floor. His tongue explored Harry's lips before demanding entrance, where he twined it with Harry's.

When he remembered he had to breathe, Harry demanded softly. "What's the spell?"

The blond was puzzled at first, until Harry tugged at the tiny buttons on his silver doublet. Chuckling softly, Draco whispered the spell as he drew his hand slowly down the row of buttons on Harry's garment. The dark-haired man groaned as Draco's magic washed over him with the unfastening of the buttons, and he quickly managed to mirror it.

"Too many buttons and layers," he protested as the next barrier to touching Draco's pale skin ended up being the man's silk shirt. Repeating the spell worked well to divest that garment too.

A gentle shove from Draco spilled them both onto the bed, but the blond didn't seek more skin to skin contact immediately. Instead he captured Harry's wrist, raising it to his mouth to kiss the newly formed magical tattoo that matched his own. Dragon and griffin romped playfully, as if they were a pair of puppies, encircling his right wrist and Harry's left.

"I never thought I'd willingly take any mark on my skin," he said softly, grey eyes intense with feeling as he met Harry's. "But I'd wear this one on my forehead if you asked, so the entire world knows where I belong."

"So would I, Mr. Malfoy-Potter."

The words incited his husband back to action, and as Harry gave in to the beloved, familiar weight above him, his magic flickered around them both, drawing Draco's out and dancing along their skin as their very magic celebrated with them.

_A/N:_

_BSolomon, Lientjuhh, and Lupinesence - glad you liked the last chapter._


	16. Chapter 16

_Epilogue:_

"Is it too late to elope?"

Harry laughed as his son nearly mirrored the words he'd spoken twenty years before when he'd married Draco. Deciding Ron's wisdom worked well here too, he repeated it. "Don't you think your grandmother wouldn't just make you go through all this when you got back?"

Richard sighed, accepting the inevitable and giving his father a wan smile, then making a face as Tihomir Krum stepped into the room. The year-older boy had remained fast friends with Richard throughout growing up, even though Hogwarts had divided both by a year and sent one boy to Slytherin and one to Ravenclaw. Now Tihomir would stand as his best man, while younger brother Eridanus was serving as groomsman.

The nervous groom turned to Harry, enveloping him in an impulsive hug. Harry returned the embrace, glad that even as an adult, his son had retained the loving nature he'd had as a small child. All six of the Malfoy-Potter children were expressive in their emotions, a trait their fathers had encouraged thoroughly.

Eridanus chose that moment to join their hug, the seventeen year old laughing as he squeezed them as tightly as possible. "Can you believe Richard's getting married, Da?" he asked.

Harry was about to respond when he felt a familiar form join the hug, with a gentle kiss being pressed to the side of his neck. "I don't know about your Da, but your Papa certainly can't believe it."

"I take it the girls are ready then?" Harry asked as the group hug ended, but making no move to leave his husband's arms that remained around him. He watched as Tihomir helped Richard adjust his hearing aids, recasting the charms that kept them functional around the magic that seeped into the very air around them in Malfoy Manor.

"All four are sleek and sparkling and drawing such looks from our male guests of similar ages to them that I think my father's considering threats of gelding, even to Allie's own husband."

Harry laughed, as did their sons. Tihomir seemed to be considering agreeing with Lucius' idea, but then again, he had three sisters to consider himself. He turned an assessing eye on his sons, realizing that time was growing short. "Pick a hair color, Eri, and something that won't cause your grandmother to die of shock."

The young Metamorphagus grimaced but complied, changing his riot of Hufflepuff yellow and black curls to a sedate blonde that precisely matched the honey tone of his older brother's hair. Harry was glad to see he'd kept the curls, since both he and Draco liked the reminder that Hermione had given them the Malfoy heir. He wondered if needing Tonks' help in training the boy's talent early on had trended him into Hufflepuff like his mentor, a house no Malfoy, Potter, or Black had been part of for as many generations as Lucius could trace.

Then again, the twins had both Sorted into the house, giving them three Hufflepuffs and one child in each of the other houses. Perhaps it was something to be said for how the children had been raised, with devoted fathers, godmothers who had donated their time and bodies to bring them into the world out of loyalty to the men they loved as family, and grandparents and godfathers completely committed to their well-being. The Hufflepuff mascot certainly showed the fierce dedication of those who helped raise the six children, and it had been the youngest three to end up in the House of the Badger.

With one last hug from each father, Richard turned to spend his last few moments as a single man with his brother and best mate, allowing the older men to slip away and find their seats with the girls. Harry wasn't surprised to find them split evenly between their daughters. Their star children flanked them, Allie on Harry's right and Talitha on Draco's left, and the flora-named twins – Cassia and Linnaea – in the middle.

Allie's waistline was swollen with her second pregnancy, her dress robes crafted as much for comfort as style as she slipped her hand into her Da's and gave him a beautiful smile. She was hoping for the child would share the birthday she already shared with Harry, and he had a funny feeling it just might happen. Happy coincidences happened like that in their lives, like when Eri had arrived six weeks early, but still healthy, on Draco's birthday. The baby's Metamorphagus talent had, like Teddy's, been evident within hours after birth when the pale brown curls he'd been born with had changed to black as Harry held him.

He met Luna's gaze on the other side of the aisle, remembering her serene belief despite the premature labor, that the child Hermione carried for them would be absolutely fine. She'd been right, just as she had when she'd assured them the child she'd carried two years prior to Eri would be a girl, not the heir Lucius anxiously awaited. How she'd known without a spell or potion, no one knew. It was simply Luna. When she'd suggested Hermione try next, they'd taken her advice.

Even if it did tangle the family tree a bit, he couldn't imagine any girl he'd rather Richard marry than one of Luna's sweet daughters. Luna said it was fated that one of the twins would be a Potter and that's why she'd given them names from nature, so they'd feel at home. Whether it was true or not, Harry loved the thought of it and thought young Sage did too.

The family tree had concerned him a lot more when Allie had married, but then again, his Gryffindor daughter had fallen fast and hard for young Adrian Snape. Lucius had opposed the union at first, terrified of the fact that they were too closely related. But Allie's tears had driven Draco and Harry to take the couple to a Muggle geneticist, and a few tests later, the young couple was given the happy news that despite the close relation between Adrian's mother and Allie's grandmother, their children were safe from the dangers of inbreeding at least.

And since Harry had sired no son after Richard, his designation of Adrian as the Black Heir was formalized upon the former Ravenclaw's marriage to Allie. For the first time since Sirius' death, that Most Noble and Ancient house had an heir who carried the Black name that Allie and Adrian had taken as a couple. Harry had cried when they'd named their firstborn Sirius, and Severus had simply sighed and acknowledged that it was perhaps the best revenge on his old rival, to have an adored grandson carrying on his name.

Talitha, at nineteen, had her mother's dirty-blonde hair and her paternal grandmother's ice blue eyes. She also had made them near-despair at her wish to date her way through the male population of Hogwarts in a very analytical fashion typical to her Ravenclaw House's normal dedication to intellectual pursuits. It had come as a surprise when a year after Hogwarts she'd come home with Greg's oldest son, five years her senior and announced she was going to marry the man when she finished her apprenticeship with Hermione's research company. He'd seemed as surprised as her family by his future marriage plans, but the way he'd accepted it easily and his obvious affection for Talitha had won them over to the idea.

The twins had been a true surprise to the Malfoy-Potters, but no less cherished for getting two girls when they'd expected one child as the surrogacies always seemed to produce. Both Luna and Hermione had been surrogate to Draco only, since Harry had declared the children his no matter what and having no urgent need for more children specifically of his own blood with Richard's magic already proven to exist. When Millicent had asked if they were done having children when Eri was not quite four, they'd decided they missed having a baby around and taken her up on her offer.

But instead of choosing either Harry or Draco as father to the new child, they'd decided on a surprise for their youngest child. Unlike the previous surrogate pregnancies, transferring two fertilized eggs hadn't resulted in a single baby. Harry could still recall Severus' laughter as he'd gotten results from the paternity potions on the newborn girls, whose dark hair could have come from Millicent and whose eyes were the indeterminate blue common to newborns. He'd then smirked at the fathers, told Millicent the results in private, and informed them they could bloody well figure it out as the girls aged.

They'd shrugged it off, not truly caring about the exact circumstances of paternity. By their first birthday, it was obvious anyway, as Cassia's eyes had lightened to a pale grey matching Draco's and Linnaea's were the same emerald green Lily had gifted to Harry.

It seemed rather poetically perfect, all in all, how that had turned out.

As Richard stood at the altar next to Tihomir and Eridanus, watching Tihomir's older sister walk down the aisle on her father's arm, Harry slipped an arm across the twelve-year-old twins's shoulders to slide his fingers into the silky hair at the nape of his husband's neck as he had many times over the past two decades.

Then as Severus repeated the traditional words to a new generation of their family, Draco's eyes met Harry's. They leaned in regardless of the quiet huffs of their daughters, the sedate kiss carrying the comfort and love of twenty years spent between two people who knew just how precious a gift they shared.

_A/N:_

_Thanks to everyone who stuck with this story all the way to the end, especially my steady reviewers (Lientjuhh, Lupinesence, RRW, Sunset on Heartache, Silvermane1, attagrl, xxxxParvati-Patilxxxx). There may be more of these characters in one-shots or short stories, especially since Charlie/Millicent and Viktor/Luna keep tickling around in my imagination that they have a story or two to tell._

_I'll be posting a new story soon, as the end of this one makes me in the mood for lots of Luna! :)_


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